Recently, quite a few MMOs have made the leap from traditional subscription models to the free-to-play model that's been so popular and successful in Asian markets. Even Blizzard's MMO giant World of Warcraft adopted the new model to an extent by making the game free-to-play up to level 20.
It appears that the mass exodus to F2P was a good move, at least for most developers. For Paragon Studios, the transition wasn't enough for City of Heroes, which shut down late last year.
Thankfully, En Masse Entertainment is having a little more luck with TERA. Since the developer made the switch to free-to-play back in February this year, the MMO's seen quite a jump in its player base. TERA's crossed the 1.4 million player mark and there's apparently been a tenfold increase in the amount of concurrent players.
"We've been blown away by the waves of players logging into TERA, and we're seeing amazing growth in both registrations and daily users. It's always great to eclipse the one-million-player mark, and at our current rate, it won't be long before we hit two million," said En Masse CEO Chris Lee.
To celebrate TERA's increasing numbers, En Masse is hosting a five-day Dracoloths Rising Event, allowing players to fight new large monsters and gain special item drops.