Rift has been free to play for just over a month now. I wanted to find out how it had been going so far so I got in touch with Rift’s “Dead Simon” Ffinch who happened to be packing up for his yearly summer trip to his favorite Telaran fishing hole. I got to talk to him about F2P and the future of Rift, including the upcoming summer event.
Free to Play
How successful has the Rift F2P conversion been?
Extremely successful and it has really surpassed all our expectations.
How has the Rift community taken to F2P?
During the period after the announcement before we went free-to-play, there was quite a bit of concern from our community about whether we would change the game and whether it would become pay to win, but having now been a free-to-play game for a little over a month, there has pretty much been a universal turnaround within our community being extremely positive about the change and many of them going out of their way to help and welcome new players.
Summer Event
Can we expect anything new in the summer event this year? And to that end, when will the summer event be?
The summer event will be towards the end of July and there are new outfits available on the store including swimming costumes! The scavenger hunt has been extended to include all of the Storm Legion zones and people will find new things to do including the infamous changing labyrinth, but this is not required content.
Of course this was asked early last week before Trion had officially announced the event. Now we know that Summerfest will begin on July 25th, will include an encounter with Swarmlord Khargoth and his zonewide swarm events along with some new rare companions, and a new title. There will even be a chance to win credits as part of the daily login gifts. All of this on top of the fishing, camping, and swimming already in game.
Beyond The Summer
Can you tell us any plans for 2.4 or beyond?
Yes, 2.4 is all about instances and it includes two new raids for two players: a brand new level 60 dungeon for five players, which is a retelling of the realm of the Fae and two new chronicles that are two person dungeons. Beyond that, we have an aggressive and exciting schedule of updates and we plan to continue delivering new content frequently just as we have for the 2 1/2 years Rift has been out.
Of course we learned last month that update 3.0 would be taking taking players to the Plane of Water which will have several zones, dungeons, and other exciting things for our fellow air breathers. You can still find the video where this was all revealed on Trion’s Twitch page but it will take you two and a half hours to get through it all. So, what all else will 3.0 bring? A bigger role for companions, item advancement, new souls, and more interaction inside dimensions. Fishing rifts, and a solo Chronicle which will be solo and not completely focused on combat.
There you have it. Though many were once screaming doom and gloom as Rift announced it was moving to the free to play model it seems Rift is still going strong and has made believers of those skeptics. It is clear there is still a lot of life left in Rift and a lot to look forward to. And I cannot wait to see it.
