Embers Adrift is now officially buy-to-play after the team dropped its mandatory subscription model today. This will hopefully bolster the MMO community, especially as the team at Stormhaven is still adding new regions and features to the indie MMO every month.
Citing a core focus on "community," the team made the announcement earlier this month giving its players a heads up about the shift. Removing that barrier will allow players whose subs have lapsed but were still interested in checking out Embers Adrift from time to be able to do so - however with some major drawbacks intended to intice a resub. One of the more notable drawbacks is the restriction of only one active character at a time, meaning that if you're a player who loves to alt, or is unsure of what class to play, you're out of luck unless you sub.
Related:
Embers Adrift Review
Literally choosing a different active character will require a sub for at least one month, according to the forums post by the Embers team.
Other sub-benefits include expanded vault and storage space, unrestricted access to emotes, and more.
Enjoy our newest patch: The Blighted Highlands If you possess a copy of the game, you only need to download and join our community! Subscriptions are now optional!??- New zone: Highlands Hills for lvl 20+ & lvl 40+- Quality of Life features, UI changes etc.- Play 1 character… pic.twitter.com/P2l1QnKh6k
— EmbersAdrift (@EmbersAdrift) June 27, 2023
Today's buy-to-play shift also brings with it new content for players - especially high-level players - in the form of the Highland Hills.
"A new region is available; Highland Hills. You can travel to it through the Meadowlands or the Redshore Forest. But, be warned, it is not a friendly place… Highland Hills is a new outdoor region that provides solo, duo, and group content for levels 20+, and 40+. This includes new uncommon and rare spawns, their loot, four new pieces of music, a new map, and a new monolith to discover."
You can check out the full details on the Embers Adrift forums, which also goes into the state of the game. If you've had an Embers Adrift account before and want to check out what's changed, now is a good time do so, especially since it no longer costs you to log in. However, despite dropping the mandatory sub, the MMO isn't going free-to-play, and there is no mention of a cash shop coming in the future - at least not yet (though the team does have a merch shop for IRL goodies).
