Trion Worlds has announced that next month, RIFT will be adding a free to play option that will let players experience the entire world of RIFT, all levels, all content and everything that the subscribers have until this date - though those that continue to subscribe will get some benefits.
"We have been listening to feedback from our players and watching the continuously developing MMO community, and are now ready to launch RIFT as a premium free-to-play experience," said Bill Fisher, creative director at Trion. (via VG247) "After taking our time and planning a careful transition; we are very excited to bring an enhanced game experience to everyone, without barriers."
Essentially, while Trion are wording this as adding an alternate way to play the game, RIFT is going free to play. Unless the rewards for subscribers are quite impressive (and since everyone can access every level and every party of the game for free, how good could they be?) then most people will move over to free to play.
RIFT F2P will begin when the next content update, 2.3 is debuted. Named Empyreal Assault, a new zone, world event and chronicle will be introduced. This next content update is expected to go live on June 12th.
Trion have previously offered free to play gameplay in RIFT up until level 20, but this new update will open the free to play up to a much bigger audience.
Any RIFT players out there? What do you think of it essentially going free to play?