One advantage of development for massive multiplayer online games is that development can continue up until the very last moment. There’s no true “Gone Gold” here, folks. That’s good for gamers. Theoretically, it means our genre of choice should have the most polish possible, thanks to longer QA and the acceptance of Day 1 patches – for those few that still buy physical packages.
Sony Online Entertainment is doing just this with PlanetSide 2. Launching next week, the development squad is continuing to polish an important aspect of the game, progression, which we discussed with Tramell Isaac earlier this year. Creative Director Matt Higby announced late yesterday that progression to high-end weapons will be reduced by 30 percent for launch.
To elaborate, its the time investment that is being reduced, not the amount of Station Cash required. Higby wanted to make it clear that there’s no need to worry about pay-to-win with this change. Instead, players will earn cert points twice as fast. You can check out the math – spreadsheet included! – at the link above.