Top Tier Gear in Dust 514 to Cost Less Than a Quarter

[Kevin Ozeryansky]

Top Tier Gear in Dust 514 to Cost Less Than a Quarter

CCP Games has announced the real-world cost of a full set of high-end equipment.
Per Death.

Morgan Godat, Vice President of Art at CCP games, has announced that it will cost just 24 cents to equip your character with the best possible gear in Dust 514. But that seemingly low cost will multiply by the hundreds (or even the thousands, depending on the skill of the player) since a player loses everything each time they die, just like its tie-in game, Eve Online.

Fortunately, not everything is paid for with real money (represented in-game as "Aurum") as Eve's in game currency, ISK, can also be used to purchase equipment. Players are rewarded at the completion of each match based on their performance and the amount of gear destroyed. If they do well, then the reward should cover the losses. If they don't do as well, then purchasing Aurum might make things easier.

"One of the reasons we're having a really extensive closed and then open beta is that we need to work out exactly what [the pricing will be]," explains a producer of Eve Online, John Lander. So far, the current pricing model in place is getting positive feedback, but CCP Games is still unsure of what will happen once the two games connect.
As Lander puts it, "No one's ever done this before, never, ever, ever."

Dust 514 does not have a specified release date yet, but CCP Games is planning for it to connect to Eve Online's Tranquility server (the live server) by the end of the year.

Check out our E3 preview [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/9724-E3-Preview-Dust-514] for more information about Dust 514's gameplay.


Source: Eurogamer.net [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-06-13-an-entire-top-end-dust-514-load-out-costs-around-USD0-24-in-real-money]

Permalink

 

[Baldr]

Typical free-to-play games lets the new players go at it for free then get them hooked and start charging.

The worst players are usually the newer players, so if the game relies on them for income, then I don't see them building a large player base.

As a gamer, I love this idea. As a business game designer, I think it is terrible idea.

 

[Zaik]

Would be neat if you could send ISK back and forth between your character in DUST and in EVE. I doubt some random mercenary on the ground is going to make(or cost to equip) nearly as much as a capsuleer or whatever they're called in EVE, but it might be an entertaining distraction if you're stuck doing boring crap like mining or something.

 

[Cowabungaa]

So far, the current pricing model in place is getting positive feedback, but CCP Games is still unsure of what will happen once the two games connect.

As Lander puts it, "No one's ever done this before, never, ever, ever."

Well as long as players can still acquire basic equipment for free, and players can still be reasonably competitive with it, I'd say this change is good.

I reckon that you can require everything for free. You can just use ISK, as you can in EVE. It's just that CCP made buying and selling ingame cash legal in a rather peculiar way. Hence why they give you an estimate of how much the ingame equipment is worth in real cash, there's a real exchange rate of ISK to dollars. So I suspect that that Aurum thingy will be the same as EVE's PLEX.

Would be neat if you could send ISK back and forth between your character in DUST and in EVE. I doubt some random mercenary on the ground is going to make(or cost to equip) nearly as much as a capsuleer or whatever they're called in EVE, but it might be an entertaining distraction if you're stuck doing boring crap like mining or something.

I think you can. As far as I know, corporations are shared between EVE and Dust. So I reckon that a corp can use it's mercantile fleet to fund it's merc divisions, for instance. I think it all uses the same corp bank.

 

[Evil Smurf]

hey, a new game for me!

 

[Dastardly]

"Insert 25 cents to continue."

I never thought I'd actually see those words again...

 

[weirdee]

Typical free-to-play games lets the new players go at it for free then get them hooked and start charging.

The worst players are usually the newer players, so if the game relies on them for income, then I don't see them building a large player base.

As a gamer, I love this idea. As a business game designer, I think it is terrible idea.

Even with pro players, somebody's always losing, and that puts more money in their pockets. After all, it's the arms dealers that win whenever there's a war.

Judging by the prices, everybody's going to die. A lot.

good ol fashioned fun

 

[Ympulse]

"Insert 25 cents to continue."

I never thought I'd actually see those words again...

Vindictus did this back when they were still using a gameplay-limiting monetization system. After you used up your bi-weekly free "coins" you could purchase additional coins that let you continue outside of the free limit. The cost per 'run' was roughly 25 cents. A guildie of mine deemed vindictus "the modern day arcade. 25 cents a go!"

 

[octafish]

Is this still PS3 exclusive then? Seems like it should be on PC as well to better tie into EVE.

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

Hmm, I still remain vaguely interested in the game. The whole "25 cents" thing has me still firmly on the fence. Eh, I'm sure I'll play it at some point, maybe even sink a couple dollars into it too.

 

[GamePLAYER]

Thanks for this info! Great article!

"Players are rewarded at the completion of each match based on their performance and the amount of gear destroyed. If they do well, then the reward should cover the losses. If they don't do as well, then purchasing Aurum might make things easier."
-> hope I do well then, or I may have to start going out less to buy more Aurum!

 

[Kathinka]

the problem i see with this is..they will probably make it so that the ammount of ingame currency LOST in a match combined by all players will be bigger than the ammount of currency earned by each player combined. hence there will be a shortage at some point, for someone. they would be stupid to make their dirty little pay-to-win system not really neccessary..