Champions Online Going Free-to-Play

No doubt spurred by the success of Dungeons & Dragons Online, The Lord of the Rings Online, and EverQuest II Extended, Cryptic Studios has announced that Champions Online will be switching to a free-to-play business model in the near future. Of course, that means there will be more items added to the game’s “C-Store”:

Currently, we mainly sell costumes and service items. We will be adding a bunch of items and devices to the store. If you play other free-to-play games, many of these will be familiar: healing devices, energy refills, damage buffs, reward multipliers and things like that. We will also have some other things I think are pretty special. A few examples:

‘¢ Magnifier – Makes your character larger for a period of time.
‘¢ Shrinker – Makes you character smaller for a period of time.
‘¢ Party Bomb – Everyone dance!
‘¢ Become Werewolf – Makes you look like and fight like a werewolf for a time.
‘¢ Summon Team – Transports your team to your location.

(Note that these specific examples are planned but aren’t guaranteed to actually be available.)

These items are for sale to both Gold Members and Silver Players. Most things in the store will be purchasable by both Gold Members and Silver Players. (There are some costume packs that Gold Members get for free that Silver Players must pay for.)