Lifetime subscriptions fly back to Champions Online

Look up there! In the sky! No, don't look directly at the sun, you fool! See there? At 3 o'clock? It's a bird... perhaps a plane... or maybe the return of lifetime subscriptions to Champions Online! It's been more than a year since Cryptic has offered the pay-once-play-forever deal, but now it's back.

It may seem odd that the company is bringing back lifetime subs on the verge of a free-to-play launch, but Cryptic sees this as offering players a full array of services: a normal sub, a lifetime sub, or the F2P experience. Additionally, Cryptic is sweetening the deal by including a number of goodies, including a Foxbat pet, the full digital version of the game (so if you haven't done so already, you do not need to buy a copy of Champions to play it), costume pieces and access to the game's VIP lounge.

For players who would rather pay once and then not have to worry about fees in the future, Cryptic is charging $299 for the lifetime sub. You can read more about it over at Champions Online.

Reader Comments (79)

five bucks, five bucks, screw you buddy!!
-Homer Simpson

Well if you really love the game you only have to play it for a year and a half to break even, though who says its going to last that long. There are some great things about CO, but there are some not so great things....like content and why do gangsters always hang out on top of buildings?

All I can say is that for $300 there had better be some ultranice content in the works the reviews for the game and everything that's come out since I played it weren't all that great especially not $300 great

Really? Just over a year and a half at $15 a month for a lifetime subscription for a game is too much to ask for?

@ Hardy:
It is for a Cryptic game lol

@SocksForYou

Really? Just over a year and a half at $15 a month for a lifetime subscription for a game is too much to ask for?

$300?! It was $200 when I got my lifetime sub at first release and how much has really changed? 1 new zone, 2 short adventure packs, 1.5 new powers, and getting charged $10 a costume pack.

To any of those considering it, save your money. The game is not worth it.

Yeah it really baffles me that they hiked the price up by $100. Especially considering the game may or may not be around in 6-12 months depending how their F2P gamble works out.

I would rather buy a brand new PS3 or Video Card, then drop $300 on a less than mediocre game, that still could very well have its plug pulled if the F2P model doesn't work for it.

I bought a lifetime sub back during beta, too, and I'm curious as to why none of the pre-launch Lifers chooses to interpret the price hike as ... loyalty. Why does it have to be a sinister money-grab, instead of a nod of thanks to the people who bought into the game when the internet was full of "they should have just shut it down when Marvel pulled out" and "everything Bill Roper turns to shit" and "why not call it city of heroes 2 lulz?"

I mean, *I* bought a CO lifetime sub when it was first offered, and I'm not sure I believe it's loyalty, but that's because:
1.) I don't believe in corporations being loyal to their customers anymore
2.) I think it's more likely that the price hike is a result of "I had the accounting intern do a cost-benefit analysis and here's the spreadsheet and my MBA means I'm smarter than you, so this is what we're going to do."

Isn't this more than they originally charged for these subscriptions on release?

Cheeky

$299 is [Cost of Star Trek Online Lifetime Subscription]+[List Price for new box of Champions Online]. The problems are
1.) no one was happy about the hike from CO-LT's $199 to STO-LT's $249
2.) the game sells for $20 at most retailers, and you can actually find the Collector's Edition for $9.99, sold and shipped by Amazon.com (which is double-weird because they're still stocking the non-CE for $15): http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Online-Collectors-Pc/dp/B002V1PTO8

Some acounting drones re-crunched numbers from a year ago, added in some financial data from the last year of STO and CO, mixed in a few projections for spice, and came up with a bigger number that makes the company more money, ignoring common sense and market prices. So, yeah, "cheeky" is right.

I'm crying with laughter here. Is it April 1st? Please, please, stop, my ribs are aching. Kachingalations to Cryptic for their shameless nerve in charging for a lifetime sub before going free to play, and my utter sympathies to anyone gullible enough to fall for it.

This pretty much sums up my reaction. The "VIP lounge" part nearly caused a rib cartilage separation.

The folks at Cryptic must be smoking some really good stuff.

When CO goes F2P they're not just opening the doors to the server room and letting everyone run wild. The F2P model Cryptic's using for CO leaves some significant advantages to a subscriber over a froobie, and Lifers get all the benefits of subscribing. Also, they're running a free trial with no time restriction (albeit zone and therefore level restrictions), so you can get total exposure to the character creator and the UI, and a good impression of basic gameplay, how well the game runs on your computer/internet connection etc.

It's not like Cryptic's just asking for $300 for what's behind Door #2.

Cryptic with another sickening money grab. I will never play another Cryptic game.

I'm pretty sure their company's name is referring to the mystery of why people put money into anything that company produces.

I've seen people saying "I will never play another Cryptic game" since the CO beta, and some of my friends who played CoH said it's been happening since CoV was released as a paid expansion.

So ... which Cryptic games *have* you played, for how long, and after spending approximately how much money? How bad did big bad Jack hurt your wallet?

i regret buying lifetime before knowing how lousy this game was man

It has such good ideas. The content and game play is just irredeemably awful.

Hey, its only a 50% increase in price! That's not outrageous at all!

I guess anything is possible in an age where people pay other people to play their games.

i would buy if it was 100$ maybe 150$ but 300$ oh rly Cryptic? LOL

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Most Recent | Next 20 Comments

Lifetime subscriptions fly back to Champions Online

Reader Comments (79)

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:05AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:11AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:34AM hami83 said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 3:40PM SocksForYou said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 6:46PM Ayenn said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:18AM OmegaDestroyer said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 2:36PM CCon99 said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 9:16PM DataShade said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:19AM Greyjoy said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 8:44PM DataShade said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:23AM dudes said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:48AM Harley Dude said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 9:28PM DataShade said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:29AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:35AM nomoredroids said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 9:41PM DataShade said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:29AM XOR said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:33AM nomoredroids said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:32AM nomoredroids said

Posted: Nov 12th 2010 11:33AM xyna031 said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

The Secret World launch delayed to July 3rd

Featured Stories

The Tattered Notebook: The passing of Ribbitribbitt

The Firing Line: PlanetSide 2's Matt Higby on the MMOFPS revolution

WRUP: Kingdoms of Amalur was pretty cool edition

Engadget

Joystiq

WoW

TUAW