Singularity 6 has announced that its upcoming social MMORPG Palia will be free-to-play -- and don't worry, it's only going to sell cosmetic items.
Palia was first announced less than a year ago. Billing itself as a "community sim," this upcoming game will plop players down into a fantasy world filled with farming, fun, and adventure.
The shift towards relaxing MMOs has clearly resonated with people -- Singularity 6 has raised an additional $30 million in Series B funding a month after this game's worldwide reveal. Now, the developer of this upcoming game has revealed that this game will be launching as a free-to-play experience. Check out the official announcement trailer for a reminder of what this game is all about!
Why Palia Going Free-to-Play is the Right Move
The announcement of Palia being a free-to-play game is a welcome one, although it does raise some concerns -- especially about its monetization model. Developer Singularity 6 tackled those potential issues head-on its announcement.
"With Palia, we’ll only be monetizing cosmetic content," read the announcement. "At first, this will focus on character clothing and costumes, but we’ll evaluate more spaces as time goes on. There’s nothing revolutionary here; clothing and costumes have long been a staple of successful, player-friendly, free-to-play (F2P) monetization systems. We think it will be a good fit for Palia as well."
Singularity 6 aims to deliver an in-game shopping experience with "high agency and low pressure." It promises not to monetize any core gameplay aspects such as boosters. However, the downside is that the premium cosmetic items will be exactly that: premium.
"There’s a corollary of this that we want to be upfront about: if you can’t buy the things you earn, it also means you won’t be able to earn the things you can buy," the announcement explained. "Ultimately, we believe that by separating these systems, we can ensure that we’re always designing what’s best for gameplay while selling products that are worth purchasing for what they are. We believe this is the right balance to make the best game experience we can."
The developers will be open to answering more questions about monetization during one of its regular Ask the Devs sessions that are hosted periodically on the Palia Discord. As for the game's launch date, that has still not yet been decided -- for now, you can learn more about Palia by visiting its official website.
What do you think of Palia being a free-to-play experience? Do you think this game will live up to the hype? Let us know in the comments below!
