PlanetSide 1 promotion offers six free months; game to eventually go free-to-play

A series of tweets by SOE's president John Smedley have revealed an imminent promotion for PlanetSide 1, offering players of PlanetSide 2 - and former PS1 recruits - six months free membership to the original MMOFPS, ahead of an eventual plan to make it fully free-to-play. I'm guessing age will play a large part in whether you react to the sight of the 2003 shooter with a new-found respect for its many achievements, or recoil in horror at its graphics and creaky netcode. It was the best we had, damn it. Don't judge us.

"We did a mass grant of anyone who has ever played PS1 or PS2 with free time in PS1," Smedley announced, addressing some confusion over who was to be included in the promotion. "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.

"Please don't complain," he continued. "We aren't raising your taxes we are making a game free. This also gives us more time to make it F2P. So enjoy starting [tomorrow] late morning."

No timeframe has been given for the full free-to-play switch, but the PS1 promotion should start soon.

Thanks, Massively .

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Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.