SOE just revealed that EverQuest, originally released in 1999, will become free-to-play in March 2012. EverQuest II made the transition in December and the original will now follow.

Three models are expected for the revamped EverQuest: free (with some limitations), Silver ($5.99 per month and also with some limitations) and Gold ($14.99 per month).

This week, Hi-Rez Studios celebrates the two-year anniversary of the acclaimed free-to-play game Global Agenda: Free Agent. The Shooter MMO launched on February 1, 2010 as an action combat and sci-fi alternative to more traditional fantasy MMO titles.

In 2011 Global Agenda transitioned to a free-to-play model, was relaunched as the very first free-to-play game on Steam and delivered the Recursive Colony expansion which included new instanced PvP, new instanced PvE, and an entirely new Open Zone.

Since launch Global Agenda has seen:

Over 1,000,000 registered players
Over 12,000,000 PvE missions
Over 1,400,000 PvP missions

Anniversary Promotions Include:

Free Limited Edition Pet - Hi-Rez Studios is enticing players new and old to join in this week’s celebration of the two-year anniversary. Any player winning an instanced PvP or PvE mission between January 30th and February 6th will receive a miniature version of the Switchblade Boss as a player Pet.

PvP Tournament Reward - Hi-Rez is sponsoring player managed PvP tournaments including a recent 6v6 competition. As 2012 is the year of the dragon, all tournament participants receive a free dragon themed helmet in addition to an exclusive item and cash prize for the winning team.

More Flair - Over 100 back-catalogue appearance and flair items from days past are returning for sale within the Dome City Burning Fashion vendor.

Players interested in playing Global Agenda for free can create an account at http://www.globalagendagame.com.

Auto Club Revolution, the free-to-play online racing game and car community, today announced the release of a brand new game mode as part of its latest upgrade to its ongoing closed beta test. Alongside major updates to existing features, Eliminator joins as a new multiplayer racing mode, offering the closed beta community a brand new way to race fully licensed cars across a range of licensed and custom race tracks.

In Eliminator mode, players are eliminated from the race every 60 seconds until the last remaining driver becomes the winner. Eliminator mode is playable across Auto Club Revolution’s current raft of race tracks, which include Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, Infineon Raceway and the game’s range of custom race tracks.

Among the other updates to the Auto Club Revolution closed beta is a major update to the Workshop, including the roll out of new paints and paint technology, making cars and their designs even more realistic.

The game's Closed Beta phase launched in July 2011, more information can be read at www.AutoClubRevolution.com where registrations to take part in Closed Beta are still being accepted.

FreeMMOStation partnered with Hi-Rez Studios to give away free 3 day booster codes for the addictive free MMO shooter Global Agenda: Free Agent. To get your code just click below!

To know everything about boosters in Global Agenda check out this link.

How to redeem your key: In-game, press Enter to bring up the chat and type: "/claimpromotion [boostercode]"

Do you want to receive the latest free-to-play MMO news by e-mail? Be first warned of exciting giveaways? Follow us by e-mail, it's FREE!

Cryptic Studios and Perfect World are celebrating the first anniversary of the free-to-play superhero MMORPG Global Agenda: Free Agent with some discounts and double XP rewards. The offer lasts until January 31. Here are the details from the official website:

20% Off Sale

From January 26 at 10:00AM until January 31 at 7:00AM PST, all players can take 20% off all items in the C-Store, excluding grab bags!

Double XP Rewards

In addition, we have some in-game goodies planned for you as well. Throughout the duration of the event, Witchcraft will be returning to Millennium city with Double XP Rewards for all Champions Online fans.

Grab Bags for Globals

In addition, the new Mountain Archetype has some party favors for sale! For the first time ever, players will be able to purchase the Halloween and Winter Grab Bags for in-game resources, but only from The Mountain. Players will also be able to perform a daily mission for The Mountain to earn one of the new Mountain Costume set pieces.

Players can find both Witchcraft and The Mountain near the tailors in Renaissance Center, Millennium City.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment unveiled today the upcoming expansion Riders of Rohan for the acclaimed free-to-play MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online. Riders of Rohan expands the online world of Middle-earth where players join forces to ride into the Plains of Rohan. Riders of Rohan launches in Autumn 2012 with an increased level cap (85), the vast plains of Rohan including iconic locations such as Amon Hen and Fangorn Forest, the new Mounted Combat system and much more!

New features:

- Experience the Riders of Rohan – Join with the Rohirrim and ride across the sprawling Plains of Rohan; witness the breaking of the Fellowship at Amon Hen; forge alliances with the Ents of Fangorn; and aid Éomer, adopted son of Théoden, as he seeks to protect his homeland from the growing Shadow.

- Introducing Mounted Combat – Ride into Combat atop your loyal War-steed as you defend the people of Rohan from the forces of Isengard and Mordor. Customize your War-steed’s armor and level its skills over time to aid you in mounted defense of King Theoden’s lands. Mount your steed and gather your fellows to fight against Warbands, contingents of roving warg riders that have been scouted all over the Plains of Rohan! It falls to you to head off and defeat this new threat before they over take the land.

- Advance to level 85 – Continue your legend in the next chapter of The Lord of the Rings Online. Experience new adventures in the epic story, and gain new skills and deeds as you face new challenges on your journey to 85!

The classic free-to-play MMORPG Tibia turns fifteen this year. In January 1997 Tibia went online for the first time and never stopped running ever since.

CipSoft, the developer of Tibia, prepared many different events for their players in order to celebrate this special day. The party has just begun and offers a lot of activities for all players, for example

- Each day, another well known member of CipSoft appears as a NPC in-game and hands out rare presents.
- The capital city of Thais is completely decorated in order to celebrate “Kings Day”.
- A new island called “Nostalgia” has been created and is open to the public. It is filled with items and weapons which still sport the graphics style of the early days.
- The oldest player guilds of Tibia receive some special recognition as well.

What started as a student’s project at the University of Regensburg soon became one of the most popular MMORPGs worldwide. At a time, when Google was still one year from release, 4 former high school class mates decided to create a graphical interface for their beloved text MUDs and therefore invented Tibia. The first player logged in only 3 days after launch of Tibia on a University server.

Today, more than 300,000 players log in on a regular basis. Some of them have accounts of over 10 years of age.

In order to keep the game interesting for so many years, CipSoft, the developer of Tibia, releases two major content updates per year. In addition, Tibia experienced many technical and design upgrades. Just recently CipSoft released a flash client for Tibia which is currently in Beta stage.

Gala Net just announced the next content expansion for Allods Online. Featuring standard additions like an increase of the level cap and new PvP battlegrounds, Volume 5: Game of Gods will also include new content such as a new layer of astral space and an epic quest that allows players to become the Great Mage. Also coming in Volume 5 is social media integration, allowing players to share screenshots and post important in-game events to their favourite social networks without having to leave the game.

Volume 5: Game of Gods is set to launch in February 2012, marking two years since gPotato.eu’s first open beta test. Over those 24 months, Allods Online has gone from strength to strength, with each volume adding more and more content while also polishing and balancing the AAA MMORPG according to community feedback, honing Allods Online into one of the most expansive and comprehensive MMORPGs in the world.

A list of the most significant Volume 5: Game of Gods features is as follows:

- All new archetype - the Bard.
- Level cap increase to level 51.
- New Raid, featuring all new bosses with epic and strategic battles.
- New Battlegrounds, comprising a 12-a-side PvP area that players can enter from level 20 and above. Players can fight against their own or opposing faction.
- 13 all new astral allods in an all new 4th layer of Astral space.
- Astral ship physics will be revamped to make astral space PvE and PvP battles even more dynamic and exciting.
- Great Rank, which is an epic quest for the top players on each server to distinguish themselves from all other players. The best-of-the-best will earn a chance to gain an extra skill point, an extra ruby, and a second slot for a customised class build.
- Hundreds of new quests exploring the nature of the gods of Sarnaut, as well as the creation and destruction of the Allods Online universe.
- Social Network integration, allowing players to post screenshots of their adventures without leaving the game.

Aeria Games today revealed that Lime Odyssey: The Chronicles of Orta, its highly-anticipated 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), will feature farming as part of its extensive collection of unique gameplay experiences. Lime Odyssey is currently in production and will be published in North America by Aeria Games in 2012.

Farming in Lime Odyssey enables players to harvest Crops or Livestock to receive Loot. These can be obtained from a farmer who is normally located by the farms next to any main town. There are various types of Crops and Livestock in Lime Odyssey, each of which yields a unique item. For example, a Cow Token yields fresh milk and a Vegetable Token yields long squash.

Process of Harvesting Crops in Lime Odyssey: The Chronicles of Orta:

- Satisfaction Level and Status – Once a player summons a Crop or Livestock, it must be monitored, fed or healed to increase its level of satisfaction. The status of Crop or Livestock starts at normal but quickly turns to hungry or in pain. Every time a player feeds or heals it the satisfaction level increases. The pet or produce ranges from greatly satisfied to greatly dissatisfied.
- Harvesting – To harvest Crop or Livestock, a player must reach a status level of greatly satisfied. In some cases, there may be a jackpot reward in which players’ yield could include rare recipes, gear, or greater quantities of normal yield. As a result, a pet or produce will disappear once successfully harvested.

The pet or produce will grow bigger and yield better rewards if it is left alive and not harvested for a long period of time. At each growth stage, the pet or produce evolves and has a different look. In addition to feeding, healing and harvesting, players also have the option to play with the pet or produce or change its name.

Gameforge has announced that the Aion transition to a free-to-play model is getting closer and players may already pre-load the client. The closed beta will begin on January 26th and the lucky few who are chosen (but they need to subscribe the newsletter first) will enjoy three weeks of exploration in the world of Atreia.

They’re also offering closed beta participants a Veteran account for the final version of F2P Aion, along with the chance of earning gold packs. Not a bad deal, so check it out on the official Aion website.

Dungeon and Dragons Online is about to get its first expansion since the Turbine MMORPG went free-to-play in 2009.

The expansion is called Menace of the Underdark and will include the much requested Druid class, as well as increasing the level cap to 25. The subterranean world of the Underdark is the focus of the expansion, which is scheduled to launch during the summer.

The Lord of the Rings Online store just got richer with some new performance-enhancing premium items that are there to help lower level players, according to Turbine’s communications director Adam Mersky to Gamefront.

Mersky said that this is their way to help players who are having trouble getting some good gear, but these items won’t help them in the endgame. He also added that if the new premium items cause balance problems in the game, they’ll remove it without hesitation.

The Lord of the Rings Online went free-to-play in September 2010 and along with Dungeons and Dragons Online, another Turbine F2P MMO, is one of the most played games in this segment.

Namco Bandai’s senior vice-president for Europe, Oliver Comte, said at Cloud Gaming Europe (and as reported by IndustryGamers) that free-to-play games are somewhat devaluing triple-A development and that those games can’t be high quality.

He added that “we need to put certain value on certain work” and also said that a big company can’t make a change just because there’s a fashion that will last for a couple of years.

This is clear evidence that we won’t be seeing any Namco Bandai free-to-play games soon… unless the trend actually lasts more than a couple of years. What do you think?

Aeria Games just launched the latest patch for its popular free-to-play MMORPG Eden Eternal, further expanding upon the game’s already robust content. The offerings in this content update include the new Samurai class, a totally revamped Territory Wars mode and the new Monster Battle Arena, allowing for even more intense player versus player combat.

The katana-wielding Samurai class has slashed its way to Eden Eternal and is fierce in close combat. This powerful damage per second (DPS) class utilizes a variety of buffs and physical attacks such as the “Asura Slash,” an airborne attack that will damage even the toughest foes.

The addition of the Monster Arena will have players excitedly queuing up, now that they have the ability to play as one of their favorite dungeon boss monsters in a 3v3 PvP action. Players will team up, and will be able to win Honor Stars that are redeemable for valuable items.

Also included in this content patch for Eden Eternal:

• Improved Territory Wars: Players can enjoy a revamped Territory Wars where guilds band together to take down the opposing team.

• Level 60 Hero’s Trial Dungeons: Explore two brand new extensive dungeons with new bosses and gear.

• Tarot Card Reader: The newly introduced NPC Morlin offers 10 percent bonus to a randomly selected class tree

Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising launched in June 2011 to a cold reception by critics and players and Heatwave Interactive recently decided to drop the subscription fees for this MMORPG. The price of the game is also dropping to $9.99/£7.99/€9.99. The team is working on implementing a free-to-play model but no specific dates were given.

With the recent announcement that Aion is also going free-to-play, there are few high profile MMO games that still manage to keep a traditional subscription model, such as Rift, EVE Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic and World of Warcraft. Which MMO do you think will head down the free-to-play path during 2012?

Electronic Arts’ label Play4Free just reached 25 million registered players. This is a series comprised of free-to-play games such as Battlefield Heroes (about 10 million registered players), Need for Speed World (about 10 million registered players), Battlefield Play4Free and others.

EA is working on more Play4Free games, including an episode of the Command & Conquer series, named Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances.

Hi-Rez Studios revealed that their current aim is to develop and improve Tribes Ascend before further exploring the Starsiege and Tribes IP, including the MMO Tribes Universe, announced in 2010.

Todd Harris, Hi-Rez CEO, said that the first step was getting the movement, physics and combat feeling right and that currently the dev team is only working on Ascend. Plans for extending the franchise are still on but may take a while.

Tribes Ascend is a sci-fi free-to-play shooter that is in the closed beta phase and the official launch date is yet to be announced.

Many years after Flight Simulator, Microsoft returns to the skies with Microsoft Flight, a more accessible and arcade flight game based on the principle of easy and pleasant flying.

Microsoft Flight is also going to be a free-to-play game, aiming to reach a larger audience. After the launch, which is scheduled for Spring, players may get their hands on both free and premium content, including new aircraft and regions.

GameClub just announced the beginning of the open beta of its free-to-play MMORPG Dragona. Every player will be able to enter, since the open beta is accessible all over the world.

Dragona Online is a fantasy MMORPG with a unique Dragon Possession system. Dragona Global features 4 races, each of which offers 2 character classes. Totally, there are 8 classes available in the game, 4 male classes and 4 female classes. On top of that players will also have the ability to transform parts of their body or their full body into Dragon like properties.

Another feature that you might enjoy in Dragona is the Battle Arena. Many players love PvP but does not want to incur the various risks involved in engaging in one. In the Battle Arena, you’ll get to enjoy PvP without risks and you can even obtain rewards like experience, potions and buff effects that can help you in playing Dragona.

Players can register for the open beta at http://playdragona.com/.

At the beginning of December, the PvP MMORPG Dragon Soul open beta was launched. Since then, more than 180,000 gamers registered to enter the battle for dominion over the eight kingdoms. In the beginning of 2012, the new free-to-play MMORPG will leave open beta status to be officially launched. This will come along with some great new features.

A special highlight will be the new class: The Bard. Team players will enjoy this one greatly as no group is perfect without the help of the bard’s useful supporting skills. The Bard prefers fighting in second row and can thus open up a new tactical level to the PvP oriented MMORPG.

Right now, players can already choose from about 300 pets and mounts, but the new year will bring even more new and exclusive companions. In the upcoming year, with new instances and in-game events, DragonSoul fans will be offered more and more new challenges.

Wargaming.net, publisher and developer of World of Tanks, announced that this free action MMO has a community of over 18 million registered players worldwide, since the launch in Russia during August 2010.

World of Tanks also holds the Guinness World Record for Most Players Online Simultaneously on One MMO Server, with the impressive number of 91.311 players.

Wargaming.net is constantly working on World of Tanks, while also developing two new titles – World of Battleships and World of Warplanes.

Welcome to the lost world of Atlantis. Dark fate looms on the horizon as the four tribes are at war to save themselves. Harness the wisdom and mysterious powers of the Ancient Ones to build an expansive empire and conquer your enemies. It will take the utmost courage and intellect to prevail. Join the battle and unleash the dragons today in Dragons of Atlantis!

Features:

- Build a powerful empire in an ancient and mystical land
- Raise a great and powerful dragon to defend your city
- Conquer adversity with an army of dragons, minotaurs, giants, and more
- Harness the wisdom of a lost civilization to boost your abilities
- Participate in a vibrant community of dedicated alliances, fierce conflicts, and epic battles.