Embers Adrift announced today that it will be transitioning to a buy to play model with an optional subscription at the end of June, removing a barrier of entry into the heavily old-school inspired MMO.
In a post dropped on Twitter and the official Forums today, the Stormhaven Studios team mentioned the reasoning behind this was a desire to do what was "best for the community."
"Community has always been a main pillar of our game design and a core focus in our operation as a game studio. We will always do what we believe is best for the community. With that in mind we are excited to announce that we are adding an additional tier of access to our MMORPG, Embers Adrift. At the end of June, 2023 all players who have purchased Embers Adrift (past, present, or future) will be able to play an active character through all the content in the game without a subscription. Subscribers who choose to support us with their monthly subscription of $9.99 will be given additional perks to enjoy."
As such, those who decide to pick up a subscription will be given perks like full stash and bank storage or unrestricted access to portrait selection, while the buy to play players will have to make due with unrestricted access to the actual game. Stormhaven states they will be adding additional perks as they move forward with the new model.
The goal here seems to be to give compelling reasons for current subscribers to keep subscribing while bringing back players who maybe didn't think that Embers Adrift was worth the ongoing subscription. It also will allow new players to drop the money on the price of the game and drop in and out as they please.
The Big Announcement is finally here!!https://t.co/giTVVTtBrc#MMORPG #gamingcommunity #indiedev pic.twitter.com/9Br8BavWle
— EmbersAdrift (@EmbersAdrift) June 4, 2023
One thing to note is if you're a buy to play character you get a single character slot. However, the way Embers Adrift states this is that its an "active" character slot. So it's unclear as to how this affects returning players with more than one character, creating alts and more. In a game where you might need to experiment with a character class before deciding whether you like it or not, hopefully you won't be required to delete characters to just play a new one. We've asked Stormhaven for clarification and will update this post when we have it.
[Update: 10:33 am PT 6/5/23]
The Embers Adrift Twitter team has responded to our inquiry about what this means about existing characters on returning player accounts if they don't sub up. According to their response, no existing characters are deleted, those players would simply select their primary character and go from there.
Nothing is deleted, they would select that one primary character when they first log in without a sub. If they sub those other characters will still be there.
— EmbersAdrift (@EmbersAdrift) June 4, 2023
Embers Adrift released last year, and while we weren't massive fans of the indie MMO, it definitely appeals to an older fan base looking for a return to traditional MMO gameplay. You can check it out the full details on this business model change on the official forums. The MMO is currently doing a free-to-play weekend, which ends today.
