Daybreak Offers $300 Lifetime All-Access Pass, As Well As $200 One-Year Bundle

When Dungeons & Dragons Online and The Lord of the Rings Online announced their pricy, limited-time packages a few weeks ago, you would have been forgiven for forgetting (say that five times fast) that both games are developed by Standing Stone Games -- but published by Daybreak Game Company.

The link between the two companies became more obvious today, as Daybreak announced similar bundles for the games in their core library. First of all, there's the $299.99 Lifetime All Access Pass, which grants you subscription perks for DC Universe Online, EverQuest, EverQuest 2, and PlanetSide 2. Not ready for that kind of commitment? Then for $199.99, you can get a 12-month All-Access Pass plus bonus items for all Daybreak games, including DDO and LotRO, which Daybreak values "at over $900 USD!" It's worth noting that the second package includes items for H1Z1, which isn't covered in the Lifetime package.

I don't really have a handle on everything that's offered in the latter package, though the claim of $900 of value seems a little exaggerated to me. As for the Lifetime Pass ... it's been nearly a decade since "lifetime subscriptions" were really a thing, and they were usually offered with new/upcoming games. Back then, they carried two risks: one, that you wouldn't like the game and play it long enough to justify the expense; and two, the chance that the game itself might go under before you got full value from your purchase.

(A third issue that popped up somewhat later was that, after a game went free-to-play, the devs would still get more money from you with oodles of microtransactions, thus making your "one purchase to play forever" a little less valuable. In this case, at least we don't have to worry about being surprised by that.)

For Daybreak's games, you're probably only buying this if you're already a fan, so the first isn't an issue. And, since they're all established games, they shouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon. I mean, Daybreak's a totally stable company, right?

It'll be fiiiiiiiiiine.

Only 4,000 of the Lifetime subscriptions will be offered, and both packages will only be available until Dec. 31. You can read about everything that's included on the Daybreak site.