Fallen Earth F2P/hybrid transition outlined
In a recent developer blog the Fallen Earth development team have confirmed that the game will indeed be transitioning to a “hybrid” payment model, which is expected to come into effect in the 4th quarter of this year.
What is good to see is that they emphasize that they want to encourage and support that people can jump in and play with their friends, regardless of wether they are “premium” players or not. All content will be available to everyone. The payment model they aim to introduce also seem to have multiple levels of “premium” players. The lowest premium option will essentially include the same that current subscribers have, but to a lower fee. Then there are two additional levels above that.
Restrictions seem mainly to be around hoq quick and how often one can do things, e.g. salvaging and crafting will be slower for free players and also for crafting be limited how many items can be crafted in a certain time period. There are also some restrictions for the current trial usage that will affect free players, e.g. they cannot send mail. They can however receive mail and explicitly stated that paying friends could very well give them stuff through mail.
The highest premium level also includes some team buff that will boost progression for everyone in the team, including free players.
Their approach seems to very much aim to support and encourage players to jump in and play together – some might be enthusiasts and some might be more casual and thus choose different payment options, but still allow for playing together. I think that is a quite encouraging approach; essentially remove many barriers for different people and friends to play togther and probably form that hope that more people also may want to pay for a few things in the game.
I like this approach and I do hope it works out well for them.
A ding world 
Fallen Earth is the most immersive MMO I have played. It is that good that it is too good. I often felt guilty not logging in and being absorbed by the brilliantly made world. So unless I could dedicate at least two hours to step into the wastelands I didn’t log in. So I ended up playing fluff f2p browser games. I managed to be subscribed for nearly a year with barely ever playing. Finally I gave up altogether and uninstalled it.
I will get back when it goes f2p because it is in my top 3 of best MMOs ever made. Maybe the pressure to live the wastelands is less pressing when it is free.
If you haven’t tried it out I highly recommend you give it a try. You can install a free 30 day trial right away. Supposedly they got a lot of new players trying it out now in anticipation for the f2p.
Yeah, it is a quite nice game – played it for a while when it was released and played it also earlier this spring.
It is certainly a game that you feel you should set off a bit of time for whenever you play it. And with the progress towns there is an actual housing mechanic in place (not just camps) which is one thing I missed in this setting – to actually be able to settle down somewhere and carve out your own spot.