The Secret World is going free-to-play this spring

Another one bites the dust

I don’t know a whole lot about The Secret World, but I do know that it launched with the requisite subscription model that almost every MMO starts with. When sales were lower than expected, developer Funcom decided to go with a buy-to-play model that saw a one time purchase similar to Guild Wars. It looks like the time for that final transition into free-to-play territory is upon us.

Funcom has announced that The Secret World will be relaunched this Spring as Secret World Legends with a completely free business model. I’m surprised Funcom was able to last five years in a post-World of Warcraft world without going F2P as basically every other MMO can barely last a full year.

As for what this new freemium model entails, Funcom has stated, “You will be able to earn everything in the game without spending money.” I’ll believe it when I see it. Some of the microtransactions listed are extra character slots, extra inventory slots and vanity items.

For anyone worried about losing their previous progress, Funcom has stated they will keep the older servers online. Anyone who actually bought a “Lifetime Subscription” for the original will have that carry over into Legends in some unspecified manner along with any “virtuacash” acquired. How nice.