Even as trial players are pouring into EVE Online to enjoy the free weekend on Steam, some are having difficulty taking advantage of this promotion.
One player reports that, as a previous subscriber, the free weekend doesn’t seem to work: “I want to go back into EVE because of the free weekend but when I launch the client I have a message which say (approximately), ‘Hey dude, you haven’t a subscription, please take one in order to play the game.'” Others respond with similar frustrations, saying that Steam and EVE aren’t playing nice together and questioning whether the promotion is for those who registered an account prior to 2012.
CCP posted a small FAQ on Steam for the free weekend, pointing out the difference of how to access it between new players and previous subscribers. For returning players, the studio offered these instructions: “Navigate to the account management page and login into your account via Steam. If your account is eligable, you will see specials button on the right top corner. Click it and accept the three-day special on the next page.”
Some of the fans locked out of the promotion point to older accounts that seem to be exempt from the free weekend despite CCP’s claim to the contrary.
CCP said that it wasn’t trying to be disingenuous with the “no restrictions” aspect of the promotion: “The without restrictions isn’t related to eligibility for this event, but account type (trial or activated). Without restrictions means without trial account restrictions, which are normally applied to all newly created free accounts.”
