Why Not? - PlanetSide 1 Kinda Free Now, F2P Soon

REVELATORY NEWS. Did you know that PlanetSide 2 - free-to-play titan and king among first-person Jimshoots - had a prequel? That's right: the two in the title isn't just for show like everybody clearly assumed it was. There is another. It's still about refreshingly colorful spacewars and shootouts with more moving pieces than an upturned ant hill, but the graphics are worse and wobbly netcode is a mightier enemy than any mecha tank. Also, it still costs money for some reason. SOE's not crazy, though. It sees the writing on the wall. Soon, PS1's subscription fee will be extinct just like all the others, and it'll join the F2P era.

For now, however, anyone who's ever played PS1 or PS2 gets access to the original free of charge - for six months, no less. A more robust F2P update, meanwhile, will come sometime after that period. SOE's John Smedley explained via Twitter:

"We did a mass grant of anyone who has ever played PS1 or PS2 with free time in PS1. We weren't ready to announce it yet because the database grant is still ongoing and won't be done till tomorrow morning. So please if you didn't get flagged chill. We are trying to do something cool for everyone, and we were going to tell people when it's done. But people saw it and others broadcast the info.

"This also gives us more time to make it F2P. So enjoy starting tomorrow late morning."

So then, that's that. If you've been wanting to jump back in or see where all the shooty-bangy-tanky-planey-splodey madness began, this is probably the best time to do it. Free with hardly any strings attached is quite a proposition. Also, while we're here, PlanetSide veterans: PS1 or PS2? SOE's latest is obviously orders of magnitude shinier, but is the young up-and-comer also more smartly designed than its age-wizened counterpart?