Independent Developer MercurySteam, known for Metroid: Samus Returns and Raiders of the Broken Planet, has announced today that their self published shooter-Brawler hybrid, Raiders of the Broken Planet is being reborn as Spacelords and will become a free to play gaming experience. The August 23rd release date is set to coincide with the release of the fourth Campaign, Council Apocalypse, thus completing Spacelords first major story arc.
According to the developer, Spacelords is more than a simple transition from the existing paid experience to a free to play experience or a simple update to the existing game. Instead Spacelords is presenting a new game experience for players new and veteran alike.
According to Enric Álvarez, Spacelords Director, there was a desire to broaden the focus of the game and by extension the universe of The Broken Planet.
“We felt that ‘Raiders’ only focused on one specific side of the battle for the Broken Planet: The Raiders. But this is about the Aleph, a mythical substance from the Broken Planet, a substance everybody wants -the Raiders, the Antagonists, each of the invading human factions…- All of them know that whoever controls the Aleph, will dominate the universe as the ultimate Spacelord. So, the new brand is not going to change the game lore at all, quite the contrary. Spacelords comes to embrace all of them -Raiders and Antagonists- under one umbrella.”
As a result the game is taking on a full rebranding and is inviting everyone to experience the new Spacelords when it releases on August 23rd on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. When addressing the reasoning behind the re-branding and transition to free-to-play experience Alvarez said:
“Our vision is to see our game enjoyed by millions of users for years to come and putting all of the game's rich content into their hands for free is the way to realize it. We’ve answered our community and hope this removal of any payment barriers will build our devoted community further.”
For players that have already invested in Raiders of the Broken Planet through the purchase of one of the games pervious campaigns, MercySteam has you covered with a promise of “exclusive, top-quality game content that won't be available to everyone else”. What that means exactly has yet to be announced but the team is planning on giving more details as the release date approaches.
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For those that cannot wait for the Free to Play release of Spacelords, Raiders of the Broken planet is seeing a shift in two of its most popular features. The current free Mission of the Week , designed to give players a taste of the Raiders experience, is transitioning to a daily event allowing for more opportunities to try the games many creative and interesting missions. Also noted in the press release is that the gold cost for renting individual missions has been significantly reduced as well.
So be sure to keep your eyes peeled right here for all the latest news on Spacelords as the game begins its journey as a Free to Play title on August 23rd.
