Otherland Is Going Free-To-Play, Open Beta To Begin August 30th

Drago Entertainment announced earlier this week that its reboot of the Otherland MMORPG will be entering Open Beta on August 30th. What's more, the game will be going free-to-play on the same day. The game was previously buy-to-play with optional DLC, but that model doesn't seem to have been working for them.

Open Beta is expected to last for approximately a week and will be used to test "some of the major updates being added to the game." Included in these "major updates" are a completely redesigned tutorial, performance improvements, new quests, new factions, hundreds of new crafting recipes, and the beginnings of a combat overhaul. Once the Open Beta has been completed, the game will officially launch.

It is unclear at this time exactly what the business model will be like once the game goes free-to-play, but the Early Access packs will be removed from sale permanently. As a result, all three Early Access packs and their respective upgrades are on sale for up to 50% off. Purchasing any of the Early Access packs before they are removed from sale will grant you "additional items and other goodies" once the game is commercially launched.

Matt's Take:

Otherland was originally intended to be a free-to-play game when RealU was developing and gamigo was publishing. Otherland's Steam store page was carefully worded in a way that implied that, while the game was buy-to-play during Early Access, the business model could change in the future. Since Early Access began last September, the game hasn't been very popular. It would have been fairly easy to guess that this would happen.

That being said, this is likely the right move for them. Despite the use of the Otherland license, the game simply hasn't drummed up a whole lot of interest. Initially, this was due to a number of game-breaking issues with the game, but said issues are said to have been resolved and yet the game remains in obscurity. Perhaps launching as a free-to-play title will help it find its audience.

However, if you're going to be a part of that audience, I feel that I must warn you that, as a sequel to the book series, it spoils major plot elements from the end of the series within the first half an hour or so.