Rift is following in the footsteps of some of its MMO brethren, offering a free-to-play option up to level 20. Titled “Rift Lite,” the offering allows unfettered access to the game until you hit level 20, after which you can presumably upgrade to the full version with your character intact. Starting today, you can access [...]

When THQ announced plans for layoffs that didn’t affect its five main internal studios, we didn’t think folks like VP of tech Mark DeLoura would end up getting cut. But that’s what an automated response from his email address confirmed to us last night. The response outright states, “Mark DeLoura is no longer with THQ.” [...]

Trion Worlds has announced Rift Lite, allowing players to try the MMO Rift without any payments or time restrictions for the first 20 levels. The maximum level within the game is 50, so 20 free levels is more than generous if you ask me. Rift Lite is launching alongside a new patch, Carnival of the Ascended, which you [...]

Developer Terry Cavanagh is at it again. And this time, he’s made a social multiplayer game starring cats. With highly-respected titles like VVVVVV, At a Distance, and Don’t Look Back already under his belt, Cavanagh’s name is already synonymous with great indie games. His latest release is a free browser-based Flash multiplayer game called ChatChat. [...]

Though EverQuest II‘s initial free-to-play offering launched in August 2010, the original EverQuest still clung to the classic monthly subscription model. To live is to change, the saying goes, and Sony Online Entertainment’s iconic MMORPG will turn those subs optional “early March,” welcoming in new blood as the thirteen year old EverQuest goes F2P. EverQuest [...]

EverQuest, Sony Online Entertainment’s venerable MMO, will be adopting a free-to-play business model as it reaches its thirteenth anniversary. The game, which has seen numerous updates, and runs concurrently with its sequel, EverQuest II, will turn thirteen in March. Various new payment methods will be introduced as it does, including a free-to-play option, game unlocks [...]

Instructions: “be a cat.” This is all you need to know about VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh’s free and cannily-named mini-MMO, ChatChat. Go on, be a cat. Do what cats do (bum-licking not included, mercifully). Hang around with other cats in the way that cats do, i.e. doing your best to ignore them with barely-concealed hostility. [...]

Okay, let me say up front that RPS is running a Perpetuum corporation. If you want to try out some sandbox MMO robo-action you should grab the 15-day trial from here and join the chat channel “RPS” in-game. With that over, let’s talk about what’s happened in our first month in this peculiar little MMO, [...]

Our London-based agent Brendan Caldwell recently talked to the men who are responsible for the resurrection of ill-fated MMO-shooter, APB. Michael Boniface and Zak Littwin, who hail from the original Realtime Worlds team, had quite a lot to say about the current state of their project. Read on for Uzi lovin’. (more…)   Read more [...]

The folks at Turbine are keeping busy. After announcing the first expansion to Dungeons & Dragons Online last week, the developer has revealed its other free-to-play MMO, Lord of the Rings Online, would also get a new expansion. “Riders of Rohan” will allow players to “join forces to ride into the Plans of Rohan,” and [...]