PlayStation’s Dust 514 moves on to second beta

By: Musa Afridi

  |   July 5th, 2012   |  

News, Uncategorized

PS3 gamers can still sign up for beta on developers website as the free-to-play shooter looks to test the latest iteration of its game.

Dust 514 is Sony’s offering in the emerging free-to-play market. A number of top publisher have either released their F2P titles or are in the process of doing so.

Electronic Arts was the first out of the blocks with their titles, Battlefield Heroes and World of Tanks. CryTek, the developer of the Crysis series, is also teasing a triple-A free-to-play title, which they hope will redefine the business model used for games. Activision recently announced their entry into the segment with Call of Duty Online, which is aimed at the Chinese market.

Yet, apart from those mentioned above, Ubisoft is also in the fray with their online shooter, Ghost Recon: Online. It seems that Sony also anticipated the trend and is well into the process of bringing a triple-A experience to the console based on the free-to-play model with Dust 514.

The game is in development by CCP, the same studio responsible for the economy based MMO, EVE Online, and the two games are set to be interconnected. In essence, the actions in DUST 514 will determine which organization gains or loses a planet and its resources on EVE Online. So instead of a computer simulating battles, they will actually be fought by real gamers.

The development of the game is gaining pace as the second beta has gone live and CCP are still accepting applications for anyone who wants to sign up for the closed beta. The current beta will run until the 8^th of July, though many more are promised in the future leading up to the game’s release.

The first beta began in May and the second one will look to build on the first one but one has to wonder how much data they can get in a couple of days time. One can expect a longer beta when the game developers feel comfortable they are moving in the right direction.

As for those wondering how free-to-play models make money, the concept is pretty simple. The game itself is free-to-play, however, gamers will be offered the choice to purchase in-game content for real-world money.

For example, a person wants more ammo or a new gun or a special ability for that matter, he or she will have two choices: either earn enough in-game money to do so or take out the credit card and purchase it.

According to the game’s developers an entire load out for the one’s in-game character will only cost 24-cents and the developer aims to keep prices low following the launch of Dust 514 as well.

Microsoft is yet to bring anything to the free-to-play table but the way things are transpiring one could expect all of that to change in the near future.