Warhammer Online client made free

By Oli Welsh Published 26 March, 2010

Upgrade from trial by paying sub.

Mythic has decided to stop charging for copies of its MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. You can now get the game for free by downloading the trial version and then starting to pay a subscription.

The free trial is already endless as it is, offering the chance to enjoy the game up to level 10 at your leisure.

If you do fancy a boxed copy, these still come with 30 days' free play, so if you can find one for less than the price of a months' subscription (it's not hard) it could be worth your while.

Subscription costs £8.99 for a month, £25.17 for three months or £46.17 for six months.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • linksdad #1 2 years ago

    Hint: Dont subscribe for 6 months

  • Slamhound #2 2 years ago

    Ah yes. We're watching the final stage of a MMO's lifecycle.

    There probably won't be a Warhammer Online in six months. Better grab some play while you can.

  • Murton #3 2 years ago

    The last ditch to save the subs based model before jumping on the free, but with microtransactions movement that DDO has started.

    I'd definitely be wary of those 6 month or higher plans.

  • Rizo #4 2 years ago

    WOW killer lol!!

  • Ryboy #5 2 years ago

    Yeah I'll stick with WoW cheers. Cataclysm is a comin' y'know! And then SWTOR!

    I really dont need a third MMO, thankee very much indeedy! I have already alienated my fiancée enough over the years, she barely recognises me as it is!

  • twoism #6 2 years ago

    Poor Mythic. I hope they'll manage to stay afloat after all this.

  • Psi #7 2 years ago

    A real shame, there were many good parts of this mmo. Always promised I'd go back and give it some more time. Looks like I'll need to be quick lol.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #8 2 years ago

    It's just annoying how Mythic managed to take the knowlege of their own very good MMO (DAoC) and the Warhammer Fantasy IP, a really good combination, and STILL manage to totally screw the pooch on it, it does seem reasently any game containing the WHFB IP seems to have a developer how has no idea what they are doing or just out for a cheap cashgrab - Bloodbowl and Mark of Choas were also completely dissapointing..

    It's a good job Relic has done the 40k side justise with DoW and soon Space Marine, and Vigil really really seems to be full bore with the MMO :)

  • anomagnus #9 2 years ago

    i'm still stunned at how badly they fucked up WAR. It'll be a case study for years to come on how not to market a fucking mmo.Warhammer has such an incredible and rich mythology, and what did they do? They created a series of mini games set in an incomplete world.

    i single out paul barnett as the biggest villian in the piece. his constant over hype, and over selling created an idea of a game that could never be achieved.

    goddamn, i am so disappointed for games workshop.

  • Spekingur #10 2 years ago

    Finally. This is how all MMOs should be. Get client for free, play a while, choice to activate subscription.

    I'd still be playing DAoC if they would have actually poured some proper love into the game - such as upgraded the graphics properly and not made crafting so futile with each expansion they released.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #11 2 years ago

    @Anom - actally I really do beleave Paul is about as gutted as we were with the outcome.

    most of the stuff he did hype up was really great ideas, the dogs of war system was an outstanding idea to keep the balance on both sides stable, it just never made it to release as did a large portion of the 'planned' game, I beleave that was one of the reasons he got recalled back to Gamesworkshop in the UK, they weren't happy with the outcome either so recalled Paul to remove their 'presence' from the game as Paul was techically GW's 'ambassitor' in Mythic.

    Jacobs was the real 'bad guy' in the project as he basically wanted a more 'pve' experience with the RVR, something that really hit home with his stupid faction controled pve zone, then again he was true to form as remember what he did with DAoC... sigh..

  • Averice #12 2 years ago

    Even if the game does end in 6 months I wouldn't be worried about Mythic not refunding, or at least not converting into new mythic doallars, any time left on your account.

    edit: come on wh40k, show me somethin good
    Edited by Averice at 26/03/10 @ 14:33

  • TitusCrow #13 2 years ago

    I'm glad that this farce is coming to an end to be honest. It's an amazing world that Games workshop created, so diverse and interesting, Gothic and dark. What did mythic do? they made a game that's bereft of all these thing's. Disney-fied the game, till its just an other world of hideously generic fantasy.

    I say again the sooner this travesty is closed down the better. For then we will get someone, sometime, who will do a reboot of the game in perhaps the way it was always meant to be done. Let's just hope that the people doing Warhammer 40k realize that even with a excellent IP you can still fail and fast if the game is not there.

    Lets hope they also remember that a game's only chance to get / and keep large number's is to release in a very good state. Even if a game releases badly and is then patched into something excellent ( Conan perhaps? ) it will never get a chance at those high figures again. You need to do it right 1st time or not at all.


  • Hypercube #14 2 years ago

    I really enjoyed it for a few months - some of the mass RvR battles were great fun.

    But after a while I really wanted something more - some sort of larger world to explore, to give me a feeling of the conflict outside of the very carefully designed RvR areas.

    It had some great ideas, like public quests and open groups, but ultimately it was just a series of paths leading between RvR areas. Counterstrike with Orcs.

  • Kragh\'Zyl #15 2 years ago

    I thought, lets try out this trial, can't go wrong when its free right.
    But then the freaking game just won't let me enter. Downloaded trial client, created account, received and clicked on activation link, can log in on their website. But then i try to login the actual game = Authentication Failed.
    I then went to the forums and read i'm not the only one. I wanted to comment in the topics regarding ''Authentication Failed'' but then it appeared that eventhoughIi was logged in on the site/forum I couldn't make a post or comment on anything.

    Seriously, how do you get something to not work like that. It aint freaking rocket science to make it so that when you click on the authentication link stuff works. Thousand of websites/games make it work everyday.

  • Gastrian #16 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • outy #17 2 years ago

    Bought this from PC World yesterday for a measly £2.50.. ought to be worth a try.

  • Eraysor #18 2 years ago

    Considering how many players there were at launch it's a bit of a shame to see this on its last legs; the main problem was that without the large player base the public quest system couldn't work. That was what stopped me playing, as previously it was the best feature.

  • Ryboy #19 2 years ago

    @Gastrian - Well said Sir.

    I wasn't dissing this MMO, I just don't have enough days in the year to play it!
    Edited by Ryboy at 27/03/10 @ 10:29

  • Gastrian #20 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • Vyggo #21 2 years ago

    I really enjoyed this game to be very honest. It's not as bad as some people make it out to be. Definatel worth a try for a few months.

  • Ryboy #22 2 years ago

    @Gastrian - People just like to neg for the sake of negging sometimes, bothered!

    I wouldn't count on SWTOR being free dude, unless you have proof that I haven't seen?

  • Gastrian #23 2 years ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • Ryboy #24 2 years ago

    Ahhhhh! It all becomes clear!

  • Orange #25 2 years ago

    It had some great ideas, the public quests and RVR.

    Problem was it wasn't finished in the upper levels and it just had too well established a competitor and comparison point in WoW.

  • curtlikesmeat #26 2 years ago

    Apparently "As of December 2, 2009, the game has 4 active, and two closing servers." - which is fairly insane since they had 800k subscribers at one point (although probably launch accounts?), and the hype generated on the internet was quite big.

    I got up to level 5 last night, and although it has some nice ideas I think they definitely steered too close to WoW. I mean it is VERY similar, but not quite as good in almost all areas. I understand that Blizzard were heavily influenced by the Games Workshop ideas, but still, it would perhaps have been wiser to steer clear of WoW in terms of play-style and try to do something different (like Conan?!).

    On that note, Conan's fairly epic 12 gig trial is halfway through downloading!

  • Sycopat #27 2 years ago

    WAR disappointed me. The RvR and PQ's were great fun and I did really enjoy them, but there was an awful lot of time spent standing/wanderng around doing nothing, or being forced to do dull PvE(In that the PvE in WAR is dull, not that I have anything against PvE) Particularly when servers are quiet, it can be difficult to do any of the fun stuff.

    So I'm a bit sad the game is dying, but not convinced it doesn't deserve to.

  • FortysixterUK #28 2 years ago

    EA will close this game rather than let it go to a subscription free model I think.
    Bit of a shit really, I was taken in by the hype, bought the collectors big box only to find a game that was just....missing something. That intangible "something" the EQ had, and Guildwars and WOW have.

    AOC is an altogether more enjoyable and atmospheric game that WH, and Star Trek online looks to be improving by the week.
    Note that whilst I have both of the aforementioned games I find that I'm not playing them......hmmmm.

    I think the only MMO's on the market that may be worth a look in the future are Star Wars Old Republic and possibly ( this has a real outsiders chance, nothing more ) Secret World.

    Note to self:- Do not buy flashy MMO launch boxsets as the game will dissapoint.

  • Vyggo #29 2 years ago

    "I got up to level 5 last night, and although it has some nice ideas I think they definitely steered too close to WoW. I mean it is VERY similar, but not quite as good in almost all areas. "

    Wow, you gathered all that after just 5 levels? Did you try the rvr lakes where there is actually some great fun to be had that is nothing like WoW. Not saying this is a better game than WoW (I am actually playing WoW again) because it is not (for most people), but getting to level 5and dropping the wow-bomb is just... cause for a neg, sorry ;)