Free-to-play EverQuest 2 transition triggers "amazing growth"

By Robert Purchese Published 10 January, 2012

Despite the arrival of SWTOR.

Old MMO EverQuest 2 witnessed "amazing growth" after turning free-to-play last month.

Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley shared boast-worthy statistics on Twitter.

"We are seeing some amazing growth in EQ2," wrote Smedley.

"40 per cent increase in daily logins since going F2P. 300 per cent increase in new players.

"And 200 per cent increase in item sales. Plus we have added a lot of new subs."

He added, referencing SWTOR: "All during the time that some really good competition hit the market."

EverQuest 2 launched at the same time as World of Warcraft - November 2004.

A third EverQuest game is confirmed as in development. It's codenamed EverQuest Next and is likely to appear on PS3 as well as PC.

The status of its development is less clear. SOE hit hard times last year and ended up cancelling promising PC/PS3 MMO The Agency.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Daeltaja #1 5 months ago

    Where do all of these people come from?

  • Triggerhappytel #2 5 months ago

    Other MMOs perhaps; wanting a change and deciding to test the water on a free game? Or maybe genre newcomers, not willing to pay a subscription but wanting to play it with no financial commitment. Gee, there are lots of people out there - they could have come from anywhere.

    But, I reckon Bali.

  • George-Roper #3 5 months ago

    Just fuck off Smedley. You single-handedly fucked over your own MMO stable, trying to chase the big boys and monetizing the shit out of everything rather than working with and for the existing SOE playerbase.

    All your F2P shit is seeing those percentages precisely because theyre free, not because theyre any good.

    EQNext will bomb. Planetside 2 will bomb. Why? Because youre so out of touch with your players and what they want, you'll release steaming, microtransaction riddled turds and then wonder why your sub and playerbase is so low.
    Edited by George-Roper at 10/01/12 @ 13:59

  • anomagnus #4 5 months ago

    @Daeltaja

    The number of MMO players, as a sub total of all ggamers, real or potential, is actually quite small.

    Really, its not that surprising. Also, we don't know what the base line is for EQ2.

    A 300% increase in new players might just mean 6 extra players, for all we know.

  • George-Roper #5 5 months ago

    @anomagnus

    Exactly.

  • anomagnus #6 5 months ago

    @George-Roper

    Jesus George, take a chill pill buddy! You're going to give yourself an ulcer!

  • George-Roper #7 5 months ago

    @anomagnus

    Got one but it grew and broke the surface and now it looks like Kuato!

  • Eisenstein #8 5 months ago

    @anomagnus Small? Depends on what you count as MMO. Even if only taking client-based games you have 16-20 million potential customers, add another 100 million if you count casual/facebook/web browser MMO-games to it.

    WoW still has more subscriptions than Activision sold MW3-units.

  • ZuluHero #9 5 months ago

    EQ2 was always a good alternative to wow.

    It does a few things differently. Quests and the over-arcing storyline is good and it has loads of content. The land is massive and it feels like you have lots to see, do and explore. The crafting system is great. And owning your own house is pretty special too

    I think it will probably do quite well for a while.

  • kassmageant #10 5 months ago

    how can they still be amazed that when something becomes free, people will jump to it like hyperactive flying squirrel.

  • anomagnus #11 5 months ago

    @George-Roper

    Just worried about you george!

  • anomagnus #12 5 months ago

    @Eisenstein

    No doubt that 16-20 million is a large number. But if you consider the total potential market of gamers, theres probably 100 million + across all markets.

    Thats excluding all the social MMOs

    My post was in response to the question of where these gamers are coming from.

  • Brownstudy #13 5 months ago

    @its-FishyFingers

    I love Skyrim too but seriously, If you could care less for some cheap ass mmo games, we still don't know how much you care. I'm going to assume you care an awful lot.

  • alceste007 #14 5 months ago

    @Eisenstein

    Umm, no. MW3 sold 20 million plus. Even on the xbox360 alone, the estimated sales are over 11 million. MW3 is a billion dollar.

    I may prefer BF3, but the numbers for MW3 are huge.

  • Dizzy #15 5 months ago

    % increases mean nothing... only real numbers.

  • curtlikesmeat #16 5 months ago

    @its-FishyFingers Urgh, the "could care less" crowd as reared its head. They drift over the internet like lone abandoned shopping trolleys in Morrisons car park, defying the world of common sense with their gung-ho attitudes and long hair. Booo!

  • jogyourmind #17 5 months ago

    I could care less cuz I dont know nothin about not caring less about nothin that aint no good for nothin.