Atari and Cryptic took a bold, if not contemporary venture when they launched Champions Online: Free for All last month, nixing the required subscription for the ambitious MMO and moving to an a la carte model for premium content. It seems to have paid off immensely, as the game’s “online concurrent user, unique login and revenue totals” have increased by over 1000%. As a way of saying thank you, the developers have released an XP boost for all players which you can activate from the C-Store tab or here. CEO John Needham said “we’re extremely proud of what the Champions team has accomplished with the Free for All launch. It’s a pleasure to thank our fans and welcome new ones with this gift.”
It’s always interesting to see new pricing trends emerge in gaming, and certainly delightful when semi-altruistic endeavors like this pay off for the developers. If you haven’t checked out the game, now would be a better time than ever to do so.