World Now Free To Play

[Bojan]

The level cap for all players has now been lifted to 50.



From the official site:

The Need for Speed World team is pleased to announce we are removing the Level 10 cap starting today and making the game completely Free to Play.

We've listened to the comments from our community and we've decided to make a change. Previously, gamers who didn't buy the Starter Pack were unable to progress past Level 10. Beginning today, anyone will be able to race all the way through to Level 50 and will have full access to the entire World, all Events and Game Modes, both present and future.

In the next weeks and months we have some great new features coming including new cars, deep performance customization, a new world region and a co-op pursuit mode. With such cool content we wanted to make sure everyone has the chance to experience the complete game from Level 1 to Level 50. For more info about these new features click here.

Our VIP gamers who bought the Starter Pack before today (Sept 8th) will soon be receiving a little present from us in the form of three free 7-day car rental vouchers for the BMW M3 GTR, the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 and the Audi R8 4.2 FSI Quattro. We wanted a way to say "Thank you" to our most ardent fans and cool, fast cars seemed to be the best way. We'll be emailing codes to all the qualified gamers shortly. Thank you again for all your support and passion.

[Dr Houbenheimer]

Great news! You got to feel for the people that did pay for the starter pack though, maybe this was their intention all along - to trick people into buying the starter pack and then giving everyone the content anyway..just don't see the logic why they would change their mind now.

Either way, it's free, and I haven't bought the starter pack, so it's good news for me

[BASGTA]

Wow, I find this news rather odd coming from EA. It really doesn't make sense how a company can take money from people and then just start to give it to everyone for free. Oh well, I think now I'll actually be giving the game a good run instead of having it sit on my hard drive.

[viper16]

i now feel like an idiot wasting $20 just to have that silvia to have them now do this.

[Moe-Z-]

I also feel like an idiot now... but who should now they're coming up with this.. -.-

[Hydro_PT]

Nice news.

EA changed their mind because they probably weren't selling very well the Starter Pack and the game was not interesting to most players (reviews weren't very good). If an MMO loses players, it is dead, so this is certainly a move they didn't want to do, but they were forced to. I feel sorry for the players who bought the Starter Pack though, it is really unfair to them.

Now I can spend some time playing, I was waiting for this opportunity to download the game and play it the way it should be played: Free to Play, as they marketed it since the beginning. I just hope the new content they announced some time ago is also free.

[DriftingFan]

wow, im actually quite surprised this happened. it does suck for everyone that did pay though. they'd probably rather just get a full refund than a few vouchers for some cars. they don't even get to keep the cars. still, this is good news for everyone else. now i might actually get into playing it since there is a reason to play

[LancerEvoFan0504]

Wow I feel sorry for all those people who spent there money on starter packs.

[RBA]

Hmm, maybe you'll see me as a heartless person, but I don't feel sorry for those who bought the starter packs.

I'm actually happy that enough of us stood ground to make EA back up on having to pay for the game.

THOUGH, I'm ok that EA "sell" "power ups" with the Boost thingy. Sure, since I can't afford Boost, I will sometimes lack some power ups (for exemple, I'm left with only 1 nitro ATM). Sure peeps will be able to rent cars, more powerful than mine's but I'm ok with that, since it'll keep the game up.

Now, this prove one thing, when customers aren't happy about something if they all say it, the company have to do something about it. Maybe EA thought they could get away with it and that people would just buy the pack after being "hooked", but again, we stood our ground and won!

Never forget that the ones that have power aren't companies, but the persons that buy from them!

Besides, peeps that bought the pack will get 9 FREE vouchers for quite powerful cars and each vouchers will last a complete week. I think that's a good compensation. Mostly if they use them wisely.

[Zotic+]

yay! now i need to timprove the graphics on my computer

[shinjeon9]

Now anyone can play this game without level caps, that's more important.

But it is really annoying for those whom have buy the Starter Pack. Only three car selection from Tier 3 and in a form of 7-day rentals voucher? That's shiznit. I'm planned for Starter Pack but luckily heard this news on Facebook. Bye-bye Starter Pack ^^

Anyway, we can't get much from EA even after this news. There is still much to improve, such as management of point system to undo the point we have dropped, more cars (30 cars compared to >60 cars in SHIFT or Undercover? That's really big question, especially EA Black Box that - help to - develop this game), more customization, less lagging, and much more...

[shinjeon9]

Now, this prove one thing, when customers aren't happy about something if they all say it, the company have to do something about it. Maybe EA thought they could get away with it and that people would just buy the pack after being "hooked", but again, we stood our ground and won!

They will do just one more thing if you say that : REMOVE THE POWER-UPS THINGY. This is not Blur or Mario Kart. This is a Need for Speed game.

[RBA]

They will do just one more thing if you say that : REMOVE THE POWER-UPS THINGY. This is not Blur or Mario Kart. This is a Need for Speed game.

I know that, but then, what's your idea for them to make money out of the game? I didn't like the P-ups, until I was tagged 2-3 times with the traffic magnet thingy and it didn't do much, except in ONE race. I was like. MEH. The only P-Up I'd make normal is the Nitro. Nitro shouldn't be a power up, but an upgrade, just like in the others NFS games.

[TW1ST3R]

haha looks like ea payed attention to my review jokes

finally i think i might actually give it another go ...well in a few weeks or so once they get a few patches out

how about fixing the servers next ea?

[shinjeon9]

I know that, but then, what's your idea for them to make money out of the game? I didn't like the P-ups, until I was tagged 2-3 times with the traffic magnet thingy and it didn't do much, except in ONE race. I was like. MEH. The only P-Up I'd make normal is the Nitro. Nitro shouldn't be a power up, but an upgrade, just like in the others NFS games.

As long as I know, MMO game called Project Torque doesn't include powerups...they gain money from selling better upgrade and parts, also cars. We also get cockpit view cam.

[Jinix]

Well im really really happy now!!! now the game really is Free 2 Play, nice!!! ill have to get new hardware thoug, mine is just bad bad bad xD!

edit*, Over at PT, you only get basic Nitrous, the rest are way more powerful and they cost AP, so yeah, they can still get some money if they sell stage 3 as a boost point w/e it's called, and stage 1 for everyone else...

also, quick repair can get you out of a mess pretty fast!

[shinjeon9]

Over at PT, you only get basic Nitrous, the rest are way more powerful and they cost AP, so yeah, they can still get some money if they sell stage 3 as a boost point w/e it's called, and stage 1 for everyone else...

also, quick repair can get you out of a mess pretty fast!

Definitely.

[Nitrodemon McLaren]

I guess I MIGHT play it now.

[Hydro_PT]

I started playing yesterday, and I must say the game is going in the right direction. There is still a lot to improve, mainly the lag and content, but it is good to see that lots of features that the community asked for are already in the game or in the making.

The game is fun to play if you enjoyed Most Wanted/Carbon. But it is far from being a really good MMO. It lacks "co-op" action at the moment. You can race with other people and that is cool, but when you enter a pursuit, you are all by yourself in the gaming world, and that isn't very interesting. I hope the new game mode they are planning to release brings some good co-op action. Also there isn't much to do but race or being chased by the cops. You can wander around in places that you already know if you played Carbon or Most Wanted. Being chased by someone or chasing someone in freeroam is fun but annoying after some time.

Then there's the lack of content. You don't have many cars yet, or performance/visual parts. You can make your car look different using vinyls, but it is common to find two or three players with exact the same bodykit you have. If they add individual parts like front and rear bumpers, skirts, hoods, spoilers and rims, like in Underground 2, that would make for much more variety and a really unique car for each player.

Also the power-ups are interesting, but some are just plainly annoying. The traffic magnet should be removed IMO, it doesn't make a race interesting or fair at all. Also nitro should not be a power-up. Most of the others are cool though, and it interesting that you must keep perfecting your skills for head starts and so on. But the traffic magnet, seriously...

[RBA]

Yeah, I agree, that Nitro shouldn't be a power up, but a performance part you buy just like in the other games.

Hmm... When they say they listen to the commu, do they visit forums like here, or do you have to go comment on theirs forums/blogs?

I kinda have a couple o' ideas, but if I say it here and they don't even look in here...

[Hydro_PT]

I'm not sure if they visit these forums, but probably sometimes they come here to see what's going on. After all this is a fansite, so it is a good place to come and see what the players think about a certain game.

However, if you want to be heard it is best to go to the official forums and post your ideas, they definitely read what people post there. The more people ask for something, the bigger the chance of that appearing in the game.

[acbx]

Holy...

now I can continue playing NFS world, great news since I was thinking of buying the starter pack as soon as they released night mod/etc.

[Bojan]

Hmm... When they say they listen to the commu, do they visit forums like here, or do you have to go comment on theirs forums/blogs?

I kinda have a couple o' ideas, but if I say it here and they don't even look in here...

Sure go ahead, post them. I often relay ideas from here to the dev team.

[zedex]

I just started playing yesterday...

just couldn't get into a multiplayer race, it's always the "network error" "connection lost" problem...

so I was forced to only do single races and pursuits...

I did 1 48 min pursuit, but got nearly nothing for exp... looked around, then found out that fastest way is still pursuit, but just keep it slightly above 5 mins... after that, got to level 5 pretty quick... lol

[ElvenAvenger]

Great news! You got to feel for the people that did pay for the starter pack though, maybe this was their intention all along - to trick people into buying the starter pack and then giving everyone the content anyway..just don't see the logic why they would change their mind now.

Either way, it's free, and I haven't bought the starter pack, so it's good news for me

I didn't buy either, and now its free!

(insert Troll face smile)

Well, it seems great in all aspects. Where is The Catch?

I mean seriously...Where is it? (its ea after all, isnt it?)

Anyway, most of their profit (i suppose) comes from powerups and car rentals anyway, since starterpack is just one time purchase, so in theory they are going to make even more money now...aren't they? More people=more of those who pay for powerups.