DC Universe Online Opening Up Metropolis for PC & PS3 Next Month

[Greg Tito]

DC Universe Online Opening Up Metropolis for PC & PS3 Next Month

SOE thinks that DC Universe Online is ready to go and set a release date for sooner than you might think.

I've had a pretty great time playing the beta of DC Universe Online [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/8443-Preview-DC-Universe-Online], but I had no idea that the full release of the game would be ready so soon. Sony Online Entertainment announced today that you will be able to play beside Superman and the Joker on January, 11 2011 (that's only 3 weeks away in case you are calendar-impaired.) DCUO costs $49.99 for your PC while it will set you back $59.99 if you want to play on your PS3. The first month is free, but will cost you $15/month after that. That is, if you don't want to drop the $199 on a lifetime subscription. Is the game ready? Chris Cao, Creative Director at SOE, seems to think so and he's got some great stuff in store for the apocalyptic event planned for the end of the beta test.

"If I had to offer one piece of advice to a new player, it's this: get ready for something new. We aren't a traditional MMO. We aren't a single-player action game," Chris Cao said. "We're a super-powered game you can play with your friends for months on end. That's not hype. That's DCUO."

The game was originally pushed back from its November 2010 release date by John Smedley, President of SOE, because he believed that DCUO needed more polish. SOE took that time to gather more information from the beta test, such as the fact that Superman was the most popular mentor and that players split between heroes and villains roughly 60-40, with a greater concentration of villains on the PvP server.

All of the names and characters currently in the beta will be wiped clean, but SOE plans to offer the players something for their time. "[Comic book writer] Jim Lee and our friends at DC are going to join us in a live, end-of-beta event where players will fight alongside and against the iconics as Brainiac's menace yet looms," Cao said. "Players will be able to experience what would've happened had they followed in the footsteps of the cinematic [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.219437-DC-Universe-Online-Trailer-Unmasks-Epic-Dark-Plot] and battled each other instead of fighting to save Earth. It will be an epic end and thank you for beta."

PC users are used to paying a fee for an ongoing MMO experience, but it will be interesting to see how PS3 owners will respond to both the persistence of DCUO and shelling out the dough for it. Cao shrugged it off as a non-issue. "A little over a decade ago, people questioned subscription fees on a PC. They'd never played an MMO before and they weren't sure why they'd pay monthly to play it. Then they stepped into those first worlds, lived online, and came to realize that the experience was worth the expense," he said. "The same thing is going to happen on the PS3."

DCUO is certainly an experiment on a number of levels, and I will be watching the launch closely to see how it is received. SOE promises to support the game over the next few years, and there is definitely a lot of source material to draw from in the DC universe. Let's hope it makes it all online.

Source: IGN [http://ps3.ign.com/articles/114/1141254p1.html]

Permalink

 

[Cowabungaa]

Games get delayed all the time, and after getting released also disappoint very often. Now this here game is getting released sooner, so will it be a lot more epic than anyone anticipated? Time will tell.

 

[DTWolfwood]

dammit i wish they would have a short open beta. I cant blindly fork over for a lifetime sub if i've never played it b4 hand >.< (one of those ppl who likes the idea of owning an MMO out right)

So Amazon beat them to the punch lol not bad Amazon not bad at all! XD

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

A subscription fee you say? Huzzah! I am officially absolved from ever having to care about this game - time to ignore it forever.

The day I pay a subscription fee to play a game is the day somebody has killed me, cut off all my skin, and is wearing it like a suit.

 

[Towowo2]

Honestly whats with all the animosity of subscription fees? The recession is quite terrible but is it enough to make $15 a month too expensive?

 

[Baron Khaine]

Honestly whats with all the animosity of subscription fees? The recession is quite terrible but enough to make $15 a month too expensive.

Don't understand it either, $15 for a month of game time is a lot cheaper than most other hobbies whichever way you slice it.

 

[megs1120]

dammit i wish they would have a short open beta. I cant blindly fork over for a lifetime sub if i've never played it b4 hand >.< (one of those ppl who likes the idea of owning an MMO out right)

So Amazon beat them to the punch lol not bad Amazon not bad at all! XD

People with PlayStation Plus (like me) got a beta invite.

I hate MMOs and have no particular interest in comics, so I was reluctant to give it a chance, but DCUO, at least from what I gleaned from being in the beta, is fantastic. The action is quick and the controls are responsive, though the menus are a bit clunky. It's more like an action game with lots of other people than a standard MMO. Overall, the beta made me a believer.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I believe that Drain and the NOTION battlesuit will be more than willing to show the do-gooders what for.

 

[KeyMaster45]

They better have one granddaddy of a patch getting ready to roll out for the Beta servers because this game is nowhere near ready. We've only tested up to level 20 and only have been able to test Gotham and Metropolis. Character creation needs lots of work, audio needs to cleaned up and debugged, (also needs to get rid of dev place holder audio on multiple NPC's)the list goes on. This is outright insane on Sony's part they're setting themselves up for failure very similar to age of conan.

As it stands now, if the game is released in its current state I won't be buying it. This whole situation reeks of someone not involved with the project trying to rush it out the door for the sake of profit.

 

[DTWolfwood]

dammit i wish they would have a short open beta. I cant blindly fork over for a lifetime sub if i've never played it b4 hand >.< (one of those ppl who likes the idea of owning an MMO out right)

So Amazon beat them to the punch lol not bad Amazon not bad at all! XD

People with PlayStation Plus (like me) got a beta invite.

I hate MMOs and have no particular interest in comics, so I was reluctant to give it a chance, but DCUO, at least from what I gleaned from being in the beta, is fantastic. The action is quick and the controls are responsive, though the menus are a bit clunky. It's more like an action game with lots of other people than a standard MMO. Overall, the beta made me a believer.

BOOO well i think i can get a beta invite if i pre-order the game. so i will probably try that tonight and see what gives. I have decided to play this game so buying the game is a given. whether i want to buy it out right is another story. $250 hmm if i can get at least 250 hours out of it i've more than got my money's worth. (unless of course i end up not liking the game, then much much buyers remorse)

p.s. STO was a game i bought outright but kinda fell off after 6 months, still managed to get me 450+ hours XD just unfortunate that i paid for 13 months and only played 6 :/

 

[General Vengeance]

I can see DC online go the same route as Champions online, they both look similiar. If I'm not mistaken Champions online is giving away 3 free months of online play now. (Cryptic sucks).

 

[Fusioncode9]

60$ plus 15$ for every month, no thanks. I wish that 60$ would cover the first 3 months and then make you start paying but whatever. Probably will just wait for The old Republic. The price may not be better but at least star wars interests me more.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

Meh, I'll pay for the lifetime thing.

Why won't I? This is going to be epic.

 

[Toastngravy]

Heh..
i can't speak for the PC version, but the PS3 version is not ready at the slightest. A large amount of people, myself included, still get slapped with freezes on average of 20-30 minutes. The newest update didn't change anything for that. So, unless they pull a fix for that one by the 11th it's best for anyone looking to play this on the PS3 let it slide for a while just in case.

 

[Ranorak]

I have some high hopes for this game.

Too bad it's such a hassle to get into the beta. I would have really liked to try it out before I buy.

 

[Baresark]

I'm so excited to see if this turns out decent. I really want to try it!! But, I can't just shell out money these days, especially with all the titles coming out after Christmas. The one thing I disliked about City of Heroes was the generic quality of the universe. That should be suitably eliminated with this. Now if only the game will be good!

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

A release date getting moved UP? That's unusual. Still, I'll wait for a trial version to be released. I barely have enough free time as it is, and I don't see the point in spiking $60 on another MMO without the slightest idea of how it works.

 

[Angelus SnV]

Having been in the Beta(i preordered); this is my opinion on a few issues:

1) One thing DCUO has goin' for it above City of Heroes (which i also played), is the fact that while both allow you to play your own super-hero (and yes CoH does have a slightly better create a char. startin' out), CoH doesn't allow you to rub shoulders with the likes of Supes and Bats....and lets face it, playin' as a hero and bein' able to say you've gone toe-to-toe with guys like the Joker is the kind of fan-service that anybody who's into the world of "Tights and Flights" is a fan of in the first place...

2) I also don't know if the game would necessarily be "up to snuff" by the time it's released...but at least they're givin' you're a freebie month to try it out before you pay the monthly fee, so while you may have to shell out full-price for the game ('less they'll have it in blockbuster/redbox/gamefly/etc), you'll be able to make your own mind up before you pay a monthly/lifetime fee for it, so where's the harm?

3) As a person who's not into MMO's (my girlfriend tried to convert me with WoW unsuccessfully) i can honestly say the PS3 version is enough to get me enthralled....sure, it's buggy as hell, sure it locks up every couple mins (i actually don't run into that problem that much...advantage of workin' nights, on my off days i'm up at 1-5 in the mornin' anyway...notalot of folks on at that time), i'm often assured that these things happen in a beta (i've also never played one before), and none of these things have been enough to be a deal-breaker for me even when they do happen....survey says (in the world according to me), we've found a winner!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

One thing they REALLY need to add is a better explanation of the boss fights. I've just spent an hour trying to take down Supergirl, when it actually meant that I was to distract her - by setting people alight - then smash the consoles - which don't take their hits properly - and then find the bucket with the hidden kryptonite in it - and spam damage on her without using any of the knockback powers.

But you can't change between power regen and health regen easily, you can't repair damage and you can't get more health/power regen without taking a trip through hostile territory and restarting the mission.

This level of game meddling ruined LotRo for me, I hope it's fixed before launch.

That being said, the new patch is really really quite nice.

 

[cerebus23]

Well having played the pc version there is a decided minority (including me) that has massive desync issues going on with gotham and chinatown in in metropolis, the big patch improved gotham slightly but it still is nowhere near what i would consider playable or fun in gotham. Not had time to test chinatown or metropolis in general since the update but intend to soon.