After two and a half years of live play and just about a year on Steam, Albion Online will finally move from a buy-to-play title to the ranks of free-to-play games. Starting on April 10th, everybody will be able to log into the PvP sandbox freely to check it out, with no planned gameplay restrictions; the optional premium sub and cash shop will remain exactly as they are. It might even be worth your while to pick it up now, as founders will be gifted a sweet ghostly wolf mount and see other perks, like a fame boost ahead of the launch, 1000 gold, and three days of sub time.
“Overall, the game is doing very well,” Sandbox Interactive says. “We have a fully staffed development team of 35 people, just released our sixth major post-release update, and have a stable and growing player population.”
“However, we’re also convinced that Albion Online can be taken much further. Our mission is to bring back that old-school, hardcore MMORPG feeling, to as many players as possible. In today’s world, a 30-dollar paywall – the price of our cheapest game pack – is a massive deterrent for trying out a new game, especially one as unconventional as Albion Online. We believe that by removing the initial paywall we will be able to grow Albion Online as a game and continue to further expand our development team to bring you even more content updates and exciting new features going forward. Ultimately, we believe this step will help us realize our long-term vision for the game.”
Today’s a big day in Albion for another reason, as the major Oberon patch has officially launched. “This update brings a major new Randomized Dungeon feature, new creatures, shrines, and chests, numerous quality-of-life improvements, and much more,” says the team.
