Well knock me over with a feather. After recently saying how I doubted TSW was about to go F2P, that’s just what it’s done*.

Funcom have announced that as of now, a TSW subscription is optional. All you have to do is buy the game up-front and that is your last cost if you so choose. A subscription is still an option, at the same price as it currently stands, which nets you:

Time Accelerator (Clickable item which increases experience gain for defeating monsters by 100% for 1 hour, 16 hour cool-down – only usable by Members and Grand Masters)

$10 worth of Bonus Points (given out every month)

Item-of-the-month gift (given out every month)

10% discount to everything in the in-game store

As a lifetime subscriber I was worried how things would work, but apparently lifetimers get the bonus points etc each month, which is more than is needed to be able to purchase the downloadable content. Game Director Joel Bylos has confirmed this:

You get points which will more than cover the DLC. The reason that we give you points rather than giving the DLC is because the DLC will cost *less* than the points you get.

Which means instead of getting nothing as a lifetimer except free content, you get the content and whatever you want to spend the points.

Also consider if we were to slip in delivery by a month – you still get real tangible value that can be spent.

There’s an FAQ for the changes, and I expect there’ll be lots of further clarifications in coming days. Funcom have also released a 2-minute trailer to coincide with the F2P launch:

So it’s over to you – What’s your take: is this a good move for TSW?

*Yes I know that the model isn’t strictly F2P as you need to buy the game up front, but I take a broader interpretation and it’s also a more commonly used term than Buy To Play.