When will Albion Online go free-to-play?
Albion Online will go free-to-play on April 10, 2019 at 10:00 UTC.
What exactly does this change mean?
Starting at 10:00 UTC on April 10, you will no longer need to buy the game in order to play. After this point, you can simply download the game client from the website, create a free account, and join the action.
Will there be changes to Albion Online’s business model?
Albion Online’s business model has always been based on two pillars: Premium status, which can be bought with either real money or ingame currency, and a vanity-only ingame shop. This business model will not change when the game goes free-to-play. The only difference is that you will no longer need to purchase the game in order to play.
Will there be restrictions for free accounts?
Free accounts will have no game-play restrictions and can take part in all aspects of the game. Since the business model remains unchanged, Premium status will remain purchasable with either real money or in-game currency for all account types.
Why are you making this change now?
Overall, the game is doing very well. We have a fully staffed development team of 35 people, just released our sixth major post-release update, and have a stable and growing player population.
However, we're also convinced that Albion Online can be taken much further. Our mission is to bring back that old-school, hardcore MMORPG feeling, to as many players as possible.
In today’s world, a 30-dollar paywall – the price of our cheapest game pack – is a massive deterrent for trying out a new game, especially one as unconventional as Albion Online. We believe that by removing the initial paywall we will be able to grow Albion Online as a game and continue to further expand our development team to bring you even more content updates and exciting new features going forward.
Ultimately, we believe this step will help us realize our long-term vision or the game.
If I already have an account, do I need to do anything to prepare?
No - all players with a currently existing account can simply log in as normal on April 10 and thereafter.
What about existing players who already purchased the game? Do they get anything?
Absolutely! After all, without the tremendous support of all our players, Albion Online would not be where it is today.
As a thank-you gift, all accounts that have redeemed a Founder or Starter Pack before April 10, 10:00 UTC will receive the following:
Edit: We understand that the usability of special/collectible mounts is not an ideal one, therefore, players will also have the opportunity to exchange the Spectre Wolf mount for the corresponding mount skin once this system has been implemented into Albion. (Please see more info on how mount skins are planned to work on our latest roadmap)
Although we do not have a clear ETA on when the mount skin system will be implemented into Albion or more details on other mounts it at this stage, we do want to give you a heads up on this particular case so that you can make a decision on whether or not you would like to save it, since you will need to be in possession of the mount to obtain the mount skin.
More info and clarification on this will follow as we move towards our next major updates.
What will happen with Starter Packs?
The sale of the current Starter Packs will be discontinued on April 10.
Everyone who redeems a pack until April 10, 10:00 UTC will be eligible for the thank-you gifts listed above. Unredeemed packs can also be redeemed after April 10, and while they will still contain the regular included Gold, Premium, and items, they will not receive the additional gifts above.
Until April 10, all Starter Packs are discounted as follows:
What does this mean for Trial Keys and Referral Seasons?
Trial Keys will no longer be purchasable beginning with maintenance on March 27. Trial Keys will no longer be redeemable as of maintenance on April 10. Players will receive their Gold and Referral rewards for any Trial Keys redeemed up until that point, and any Trial Keys not yet redeemed will be automatically refunded to the original buyer.
The current Referral Season system, in which referral rewards are based on Trial Keys and Starter Packs, will be replaced by a different system on April 10 to reflect the fact that there will no longer be Trial Keys and Starter Packs. Details of the new Referral Season will be announced at that time. As is currently the case, each successful referral will generate a Gold reward for the original referrer, and rewards and duration of each season will be announced at the beginning of the season.
If I started a trial account before the switch to F2P, can I continue to play on it after April 10?
Yes.
Will I get rewards for each game pack I have purchased?
The reward will be given per game pack redeemed. I.e. if you have redeemed, say, 3 game packs on a single account, you'd get the reward 3 times. This is to make sure that people who redeemed multiple game packs on the same account - as opposed to different accounts - are not at a disadvantage.
Do we need to have premium active in order to receive the rewards for having purchased a founder or starter pack?
You do not need premium active on you account to receive the Spectre Wolf, you just need your chosen pack to be redeemed.
What are you going to do to prevent bots?
The main answer to this of course is Easy Anti Cheat, this is one of the very reasons it was prepared and implemented ahead of the F2P launch. We are not solely relying on easy anti cheat, but in addition we're improving our data collection methods and we're using this data to detect bots as well.
Our policy on botting has always been absolute zero tolerance , and several departments in our team are actively monitoring this very closely.
What are you going to do to prevent other ways of cheating?
In general Easy Anti-Cheat is capable of automatically detecting various cheating methods. In addition to that we are also expanding our support team, who are also keeping a very close eye on this.
You can find more information on Easy Anti-Cheat here.
What will happen to the gold market?
Player market determines the price for premium. If the increased demand causes a price increase, this will make buying gold a more attractive prospect, which should in turn, bring down gold prices.
What are you going to do about spammers, trolls & scammers?
We have recently implemented an anti spam system, combined with several other chat moderation mechanics in preparation for F2P, so far this includes;
Our stance on this remains unchanged, it is and will always be highly prohibited.
To combat them we have targeted their business model - how we do that is preventing botting and preventing credit card fraud. We have implemented a system that requires the account to meet certain criteria, which is then manually verified by us to be able to use Gold.
More info can be found here.
Why can't I have multiple accounts running on the same device in parallel?
In order to protect the game from multi-accounting and the implications of that, we have taken certain measures to make it significantly more difficult to have multiple accounts running at the same time.
Please see the answer above in relation to multiple accounts, additionally, the new tutorial also acts as initial time-based barrier that you need to complete in order to access the rest of the game. Right now the tutorial takes approx. 40 mins to complete.
And what about naked scouts?
Note that naked scouting with a 2nd account is forbidden by our terms and conditions if the same person is inside the dungeon with their first account - that would violate our multi-accounting rules as the two characters are then assisting each other. If you suspect someone of violating the terms and conditions, please report this to our support team here.
What about performance & stability?
To be clear, improving the technical performance of Albion Online will continually be a high priority to us, and we are fully aware that performance issues sometimes occur during very large fights.
Not only do we strive to push Albion Online to it’s technical limits wherever we can so that you can experience these large scale fights, we incrementally improve the stability of the game as we locate performance issues. Since it can be down to a wide variety of reasons, we are evaluating reports on a constant basis.
Additionally, here are some of the measures put in place in the past and looking to F2P:
On top of this, we are always grateful for your support in helping us pinpoint potential issues, it's great if they can forward their cases with as much detail as possible.
What are you going to do to make sure that the players who will try out this game will actually stay?
We have introduced 6 major updates since release, at a general pace of 3-4 major updates per year which we will keep up going forward. Content is king, and the timely introduction of new content into the game will always have the biggest impact on player retention.
During that time, we have made a conscious effort to improve the rewards you can obtain in Albion Online on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
This is also part of our objective to introduce features that let you make meaningful progress and feel the benefits of logging into the game on a daily basis, even if your friends and guildmates are offline, which doesn’t lock you into waiting for others to show up.
At the same time, we have kept ‘rewarding the effort of individuals’ at the forefront of our minds when designing the way you achieve the GvG season rewards. Not only can you obtain them at different ranks but you also need a certain amount of guild loyalty.
Overall, we see that the recent Adventurer’s Challenge and the GvG season rewards, has had a very positive impact on short term and long term player retention.
To further expand on that, as you may have read in the recent Roadmap, we outlined our two main goals, one of which being to ‘’Improve the quality and variety of activities available to players of all experience levels’’. By improving the replay-ability and variety of content that we offer to all experience levels, like we see in the Random Dungeons for example, we can create great incentives for players to return to them.
Albion Online will go free-to-play on April 10, 2019 at 10:00 UTC.
What exactly does this change mean?
Starting at 10:00 UTC on April 10, you will no longer need to buy the game in order to play. After this point, you can simply download the game client from the website, create a free account, and join the action.
Will there be changes to Albion Online’s business model?
Albion Online’s business model has always been based on two pillars: Premium status, which can be bought with either real money or ingame currency, and a vanity-only ingame shop. This business model will not change when the game goes free-to-play. The only difference is that you will no longer need to purchase the game in order to play.
Will there be restrictions for free accounts?
Free accounts will have no game-play restrictions and can take part in all aspects of the game. Since the business model remains unchanged, Premium status will remain purchasable with either real money or in-game currency for all account types.
Why are you making this change now?
Overall, the game is doing very well. We have a fully staffed development team of 35 people, just released our sixth major post-release update, and have a stable and growing player population.
However, we're also convinced that Albion Online can be taken much further. Our mission is to bring back that old-school, hardcore MMORPG feeling, to as many players as possible.
In today’s world, a 30-dollar paywall – the price of our cheapest game pack – is a massive deterrent for trying out a new game, especially one as unconventional as Albion Online. We believe that by removing the initial paywall we will be able to grow Albion Online as a game and continue to further expand our development team to bring you even more content updates and exciting new features going forward.
Ultimately, we believe this step will help us realize our long-term vision or the game.
If I already have an account, do I need to do anything to prepare?
No - all players with a currently existing account can simply log in as normal on April 10 and thereafter.
What about existing players who already purchased the game? Do they get anything?
Absolutely! After all, without the tremendous support of all our players, Albion Online would not be where it is today.
As a thank-you gift, all accounts that have redeemed a Founder or Starter Pack before April 10, 10:00 UTC will receive the following:
- The Specter Wolf mount – an exclusive ghostly mount that has the same stats as a Direwolf and will not be available at any other point in the future
- 1,000 Gold
- 3 Days of Claimable Premium
- Special Avatar Ring
Edit: We understand that the usability of special/collectible mounts is not an ideal one, therefore, players will also have the opportunity to exchange the Spectre Wolf mount for the corresponding mount skin once this system has been implemented into Albion. (Please see more info on how mount skins are planned to work on our latest roadmap)
Although we do not have a clear ETA on when the mount skin system will be implemented into Albion or more details on other mounts it at this stage, we do want to give you a heads up on this particular case so that you can make a decision on whether or not you would like to save it, since you will need to be in possession of the mount to obtain the mount skin.
More info and clarification on this will follow as we move towards our next major updates.
What will happen with Starter Packs?
The sale of the current Starter Packs will be discontinued on April 10.
Everyone who redeems a pack until April 10, 10:00 UTC will be eligible for the thank-you gifts listed above. Unredeemed packs can also be redeemed after April 10, and while they will still contain the regular included Gold, Premium, and items, they will not receive the additional gifts above.
Until April 10, all Starter Packs are discounted as follows:
- Veteran Starter Packs now cost USD 19.77 (contains ~USD 20 worth of Gold and Premium)
- Epic Starter Packs now cost USD 32.97 (contains ~USD 50 worth of Gold and Premium)
- Legendary Starter Packs now cost USD 65.97 (contains ~USD 80 worth of Gold and Premium)
What does this mean for Trial Keys and Referral Seasons?
Trial Keys will no longer be purchasable beginning with maintenance on March 27. Trial Keys will no longer be redeemable as of maintenance on April 10. Players will receive their Gold and Referral rewards for any Trial Keys redeemed up until that point, and any Trial Keys not yet redeemed will be automatically refunded to the original buyer.
The current Referral Season system, in which referral rewards are based on Trial Keys and Starter Packs, will be replaced by a different system on April 10 to reflect the fact that there will no longer be Trial Keys and Starter Packs. Details of the new Referral Season will be announced at that time. As is currently the case, each successful referral will generate a Gold reward for the original referrer, and rewards and duration of each season will be announced at the beginning of the season.
If I started a trial account before the switch to F2P, can I continue to play on it after April 10?
Yes.
Will I get rewards for each game pack I have purchased?
The reward will be given per game pack redeemed. I.e. if you have redeemed, say, 3 game packs on a single account, you'd get the reward 3 times. This is to make sure that people who redeemed multiple game packs on the same account - as opposed to different accounts - are not at a disadvantage.
Do we need to have premium active in order to receive the rewards for having purchased a founder or starter pack?
You do not need premium active on you account to receive the Spectre Wolf, you just need your chosen pack to be redeemed.
What are you going to do to prevent bots?
The main answer to this of course is Easy Anti Cheat, this is one of the very reasons it was prepared and implemented ahead of the F2P launch. We are not solely relying on easy anti cheat, but in addition we're improving our data collection methods and we're using this data to detect bots as well.
Our policy on botting has always been absolute zero tolerance , and several departments in our team are actively monitoring this very closely.
What are you going to do to prevent other ways of cheating?
In general Easy Anti-Cheat is capable of automatically detecting various cheating methods. In addition to that we are also expanding our support team, who are also keeping a very close eye on this.
You can find more information on Easy Anti-Cheat here.
What will happen to the gold market?
Player market determines the price for premium. If the increased demand causes a price increase, this will make buying gold a more attractive prospect, which should in turn, bring down gold prices.
What are you going to do about spammers, trolls & scammers?
We have recently implemented an anti spam system, combined with several other chat moderation mechanics in preparation for F2P, so far this includes;
- Whisper limit to max amount of players within a certain time-frame
- Automatically censoring racist, homophobic slurs which also applies when creating characters, guilds and alliance names.
- An extended mute list to 150 incl. Mails
Our stance on this remains unchanged, it is and will always be highly prohibited.
To combat them we have targeted their business model - how we do that is preventing botting and preventing credit card fraud. We have implemented a system that requires the account to meet certain criteria, which is then manually verified by us to be able to use Gold.
More info can be found here.
Why can't I have multiple accounts running on the same device in parallel?
In order to protect the game from multi-accounting and the implications of that, we have taken certain measures to make it significantly more difficult to have multiple accounts running at the same time.
- If you are logged in on a character without Premium status active, this is the only character that you can have logged into the game. It will not possible for you to log in a second character, whether it has Premium active or not.
- If you are logged in on a character that has Premium status active, you will be able to log in an additional character that has Premium active, but not a character without active Premium status.
Please see the answer above in relation to multiple accounts, additionally, the new tutorial also acts as initial time-based barrier that you need to complete in order to access the rest of the game. Right now the tutorial takes approx. 40 mins to complete.
And what about naked scouts?
Note that naked scouting with a 2nd account is forbidden by our terms and conditions if the same person is inside the dungeon with their first account - that would violate our multi-accounting rules as the two characters are then assisting each other. If you suspect someone of violating the terms and conditions, please report this to our support team here.
What about performance & stability?
To be clear, improving the technical performance of Albion Online will continually be a high priority to us, and we are fully aware that performance issues sometimes occur during very large fights.
Not only do we strive to push Albion Online to it’s technical limits wherever we can so that you can experience these large scale fights, we incrementally improve the stability of the game as we locate performance issues. Since it can be down to a wide variety of reasons, we are evaluating reports on a constant basis.
Additionally, here are some of the measures put in place in the past and looking to F2P:
- Optimizing performance of spell effects
- More customizable graphical settings
- Adapting cluster caps in relation to performance limitations, while also maintaining our real time action combat model.
- The Portal Rework should also have an impact on how often you encounter these issues, since the player population will be much more spread out. Naturally, we will be reviewing that during and after the test.
- We recently split cities into into multiple clusters
- We have also invested in additional hardware, to mitigate the impact of server overload of a particular zone on the entire game.
On top of this, we are always grateful for your support in helping us pinpoint potential issues, it's great if they can forward their cases with as much detail as possible.
What are you going to do to make sure that the players who will try out this game will actually stay?
We have introduced 6 major updates since release, at a general pace of 3-4 major updates per year which we will keep up going forward. Content is king, and the timely introduction of new content into the game will always have the biggest impact on player retention.
During that time, we have made a conscious effort to improve the rewards you can obtain in Albion Online on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
This is also part of our objective to introduce features that let you make meaningful progress and feel the benefits of logging into the game on a daily basis, even if your friends and guildmates are offline, which doesn’t lock you into waiting for others to show up.
At the same time, we have kept ‘rewarding the effort of individuals’ at the forefront of our minds when designing the way you achieve the GvG season rewards. Not only can you obtain them at different ranks but you also need a certain amount of guild loyalty.
Overall, we see that the recent Adventurer’s Challenge and the GvG season rewards, has had a very positive impact on short term and long term player retention.
To further expand on that, as you may have read in the recent Roadmap, we outlined our two main goals, one of which being to ‘’Improve the quality and variety of activities available to players of all experience levels’’. By improving the replay-ability and variety of content that we offer to all experience levels, like we see in the Random Dungeons for example, we can create great incentives for players to return to them.
Evoque#9601
