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SOE All Access pass goes live

by Jef Reahard on Jun 28th 2011 5:00PM

Fantasy, Free Realms, Vanguard, Star Wars Galaxies, News Items, MMO Industry, Business Models, Pirates of the Burning Sea, EverQuest II, EverQuest, Sci-Fi, DC Universe Online

Sony Online Entertainment has finally lowered its monthly all-you-can-eat MMORPG subscription plan. All Access (formerly known as the Station Pass) grants you unlimited time with all of SOE's titles for a single monthly fee of $19.99.

Games include DC Universe (sorry PS3 users, this is for the PC version only), EverQuest, EverQuest II, Vanguard, and Star Wars Galaxies. You also get premium access to free-to-play titles like EQ2X, Free Realms, and Pirates of the Burning Sea. The All Access service, which previously set you back $29.99 per month, returns to the price point enjoyed by SOE customers prior to the April 2007 rate hike.

The reduction follows the announcement that SWG will terminate services on December 15th and will be freely playable to recent subscribers beginning in the fall.

Source: SOE website

Reader Comments (23)

Was going to go for this... up till they announced SWG closing. Now it is not appealing to me beyond DCUO. (the action style of that is a guilty pleasure of mine)

What a terrible deal. I didn't even know this existed, much less for $29.99, but at $19.99, it's still a terrible deal. Half those games aren't even playable.

Assuming I do not own any SOE games yet, will the All Access Pass just cover all monthly fees for the games, leaving me with having to buy also the game/latest expansion for access, or is really everything covered in this 19.99$ a month?

@(Unverified)

You still have to buy the expansions and whatnot yourself. It's just that you're paying one sub fee to access many games. Great deal if you like even one or two of those games anyway; you can consider the rest free gifts! :D

@pcgneurotic

When you buy the latest expansion, you get all expansions for SOE games.

@(Unverified)
Free Realms, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and Everquest II Extended are free to play, so there is no need to buy those. The All Access will give you premium status in those games (e.g. Gold in EQ2X).

Everquest II is not really necessary to buy unless you want to play on the regular servers with friends or something. If you do want to play on the regular (non-f2p) servers, SOE has a EQ2 starter pack that includes everything except the last expansion (so all expansions up to and including Sentinel's Fate) for US$19.99. Destiny of Velious expansion, which includes all previous content is currently US$29.99.

The other non-f2p games: DCUO is US$39.99; Vanguard is US$9.99 and yes it now runs smoothly and fairly bug free considering SOE has pretty much abandoned development even though it is the best game in their lineup.

@(Unverified)

P.S. This is important... when you buy a game such as Everquest II or DCUO, you get a month of included game time. This free time will NOT add to an All Access subscription. So if you plan on buying any of the games, I recommend playing the free month then upgrading your subscription after that to All Access.

Going to be keeping my eye on announcements from FanFaire. Depending on what's coming to EQ2 and what they reveal about PS:Next, I may pick up Station Access after all.

As soon as I have the cash I will definitely sub up. EQ2 & DC universe are totally worth it. Plus they have some new titles down the pipe. May even invest time in EQ2X since i got a few friends there

It's the cheapest way to sub for a bunch of games you'll play for a couple hours before deciding they're not that great, but maybe you'll come back to them someday, then forget to cancel your sub.

Low-fat idle-sub!

Charging 17.99 EUR (25,85 USD) in Europe for exactly the same service is somewhat ridiculous and shows that SOE doesn't deserve any further attention from over here. They will never learn ...

@qsecofr

I agree, it should be 13.99 Euro.

Was salivating at the chance to go for this, but with Vanguard dead in the water and SWG dead in December, its going to be a little harder to get excited for. Love EQ2 and wouldn't mind trying out DCUO but still can't help but feel a bit let down.

This is a clever way to boost the subscription numbers for all their games. They don't make any more money, and might even lose some from people who had subs to several games, but the number of players paying for each game will go up. So they can say that PotBS, for example, now has 50k (or however many people sign up for this) more subscribers.

I don't know, it could be a good deal, but really who has time to play more than 1 MMO at a time anyway...when playing for serious amounts of time that is!

If you're already playing one SoE game and have been thinking about another, this is a pretty good deal since it basically lets you add that other one on for $5.

I play EQ2 and would never spring for $15 or even $10 for Vanguard (since it's on its last legs) or DCUO, but $5 tempts me.

I have never been an SOE "hater" and I am still not. However, I just have no desire for any of their line up games now. With SWG closing and Vanguard on life support I have no interest. I have no interest in any upcoming project except maybe a CRAZY polished Everquest 3. For the first time (and I have just about every SOE MMO) I have no interest in SOE whatsoever.

The $20 seemed like a good idea when I was thinking about dipping my toes into Galaxies and EQ/EQII. Now I'm not sure. I've already got a lifetime sub to DCUO so the pass only really works if they put out another game (preferably a space opera sandbox :) ).

Actually they announced this prior to saying SWG was being shutdown. I assumed a game would be shutdown but I figured it would have been Vanguard.

I would also have preferred to play SWG with this.

But, I will finally give Vanguard a try, life-support or not. And hope to lightly try out PoTBS again from my Beta days. I never even touched EQ2, but I like the "extras" over what you get with EQ2-extended, so I may finally give that a try, even though I am frazzled on Fantasy-themed MMOs.

As for the future, not counting on it. This offer is good for NOW and who knows what will happen if even EQ3 is announced. It won't come out immediately and the SOE pass may not even cover it (or it may go up again in price).

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SOE All Access pass goes live

Reader Comments (23)

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:17PM tk421242 said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:18PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:18PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:22PM pcgneurotic said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:35PM Yellowdancer said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:58PM Ordegar said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 7:02PM Ordegar said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:23PM Lucien said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:26PM Fatetaker said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:27PM Transientmind said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 5:39PM qsecofr said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 7:06PM Ordegar said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:01PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:10PM ZTZ said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 6:25PM Khalus said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 7:43PM aurickle said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 8:16PM Zantom said

Posted: Jun 28th 2011 8:42PM Furdinand said

Posted: Jun 29th 2011 2:18AM Interitus said

Posted: Jun 29th 2011 8:33AM Space Cobra said

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