Original EverQuest goes free-to-play

By Fred Dutton Published 30 January, 2012

Veteran MMO makes the shift in early March.

Long-running MMO EverQuest goes free-to-play this Spring, publisher Sony Online Entertainment has announced.

A blog post on the game's official site broke the news earlier today, with producer Thom Terrazas stating that the change will take place some time in early March.

"We're excited to be expanding the EverQuest experience by making the game more accessible to every type of player so that you can choose to play the game in a way that suits you best," he wrote.

"Anyone who wishes to start, return or continue to play one of the 'Best Games of All-Time' can simply download and play EverQuest on their terms - think of it as Free to Play, Your Way.

"The game will now be setup to be flexible so that you can decide how much to pay, based on how much fun you're having."

There'll be three payment tiers - Free, Silver ($5) and Gold ($14.99 a month). A new FAQ has a full breakdown of exactly how it will work.

Players can expect a number of refinements and new additions once the transition has been completed, including new events and items to mark the game's 13th anniversary, a renovated website and an improved map system.

The game's sequel went free-to-play last month.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (15) Latest comment 4 months ago

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

  • Mister-Wario #1 4 months ago

    I didn't know Everquest was still going! Nice to hear this, though. I may give it a look.

  • levitate #2 4 months ago

    Sounds good, I've never actually played EQ properly even though I have a gamedisc stashed somewhere.

  • darc #3 4 months ago

    I tried really hard to like EQ back in the day, but it was just way too slow for me. This was about 5 MMO's before I finally came to the conclusion that I'm just not an MMO guy.

    Man, that was a LONG time ago...

  • scoop #4 4 months ago

    If you stopped playing after 4-5 years and go back now, be prepared for a shock. It's a wee bit confusing - they should probably update the controls, as most of us have gotten used to WoW's ASWD & mouselook controls. I played it last year for old time's sake, and I'd forgotten it was made for first-person view; it had me feeling rather nauseous after 30 minutes :p

    Great fun playing with all the old character classes though. Once you hear the old spell SFX, it all comes back to you.

  • tafkap #5 4 months ago

    I tried it out a couple of years ago, post-WOW, and my goodness it looked terrible. It was difficult to get past the Voodoo level graphics, albeit there's probably a huge and engrossing game in there.

  • Butr0sButr0s #6 4 months ago

    I'm still waiting for Asheron's Call to have a free-to-play option : ( That game had the most robust character customization I've seen in an online RPG. Want to be a warrior that shoots fireballs and lightning? Go ahead. How about a healer that specializes in bows? You can do that too.

    I wish a company would make a classless system again that gave you skill points or experience and let you distribute them in any of the trees as you see fit.

  • scoop #7 4 months ago

    @Butr0sButr0s

    Yep, AC was awesome for this. I remember playing it after EQ and thinking it looked awful, but the underlying gameplay was magic. Classless systems are great if done properly, but everyone seems afraid to try them because they don't fit the cookie cutter template. Or maybe they know their creative limits.

  • Kanjin #8 4 months ago

    Wonder if they've stopped trying to make projects off the back of EQ yet.

  • getittoomebaby #9 4 months ago

    I'd read the FAQ before you get all excited. Good value if you after giving it a go but if you get even half serious you would have to go to Gold level.

  • Yuroko #10 4 months ago

    This game owes me 4 years of my life back. In fact nah, it can keep them, it was 4 of my most favourite gaming years.

    I played WoW for a few years after but it never had the same effect. WoW was more streamlined and user friendly but it took all the skill away and simply wasn't rewarding. Doing the epic weapon quests in EQ were a real sense of achievement even if most of it was just camping in the same location waiting for a mob to pop for weeks.

    I popped back on for the 10th anniversary and it had changed considerably. They made it more like WoW and my bard had been crazy nerfed and just wasn't fun to play any more. It had aged terribly also. I will always have fantastic memories of Everquest though and will remain one of my top 5 favourite games for yonks.

  • Mellissa #11 4 months ago

    I went back on a freebie a few years ago. WC giants still looked the same but it felt strange kiting them again. Popped to Freeport and was horrified with how it looks now (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/27/eqfp.jpg/).
    .

  • berelain #12 4 months ago

    Everquest will always have a place in my heart; its unforgiving, unwelcoming world was so unique and alien at the time, and I remember fondly the days of hour-long corpse runs because you wandered off to explore, forgot to bind at the last town you visited, and really needed to get your stuff back but couldn't risk getting killed by yet another high level mob, the days of hopelessly wandering around the Faydark looking for Kelethin because the game didn't originally have any maps, the days of endless skeleton slaying because the way they laughed was just awesome, the days of clumsy conversations with bland NPCs, of accidentally training a legion of orcs to the closest settlement...

    I went back to it a few years ago, but it's changed a lot since the early days. Probably for the better, but its no longer the same game I fell in love with. I don't think I could play a game as punishing as it was back in its day now, but I don't think I could stomach the streamlined EQ for long either.
    Edited by berelain at 31/01/12 @ 08:43

  • Mellissa #13 4 months ago

    Worst corpse runs I had was where I'd fallen asleep at the keyboard but carried on running. Had to search my logs to have some idea where my corpse was, then ask my guild to help because it would be at the bottom of a lake surrounded by mobs. Has anybody here seen my corpse? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKDkvy9sKuY :-)
    .

  • geeza2020 #14 4 months ago

    Might have to get this just so i can have a listen to the blackburrow music again. Memories!

  • Yuroko #15 4 months ago

    @geeza2020 I used to love the Qeynos music with the out of time midi drums.