F2P Console Age Begins: Dust 514 Open Beta Date Announced

Michael Dunaway
By Michael Dunaway, News Editor Posted:
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This is an interesting time for Free-to-Play gaming. For those of us that have embraced the F2P culture over the past few years, we have seen the multiplayer side of the PC gaming industry undeniably shaped by the F2P model. The model is practically ubiquitous when it comes to the MMO market, with more high quality games such as TERA turning F2P and shedding their P2P roots for the better.

Today's Dust 514 open beta announcement marks more then just the start of another F2P shooter. It signals yet another transition towards quality, high profile F2P titles on home consoles. DUST 514 is more then just a lobby based shooter. It's a cooperative experience that spans two separate and fundamentally different games -DUST 514 and EVE Online- across two platforms, yet combines the two into a single persistent online universe in real time.

It's an incredible system with players in the space MMO EVE acting as overlords and issuing missions to DUST players. If the ground troops in DUST are able to successfully carry out the mission they reap the rewards put up by the EVE player. This in turn gives the EVE player whatever reward he was seeking by issuing the attack in the first place which usually involves controlling certain sectors in space.

However, the interaction between the two ins't simply a static one. During a mission, DUST players can request orbital bombardments from players in EVE in real time. If the EVE player is orbiting the corresponding planet the battle is taking place on they can fulfill the request and actually bombard the enemy side during battle. Consequently, players on the enemy faction in DUST can take control of certain installations on planets in order to fire back at the orbiting ships in EVE.

The end result is a very symbiotic relationship and one that perfectly fits within the two game's inherently different playstyles and platforms. It is for these reasons we now shift from just covering F2P PC games to covering both PC and console F2P games.

If you're interested in trying out DUST 514 the open beta date is set for January 22nd. The game will be available to download through the official Playstation Store.

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In this article: DUST 514.

About the Author

Michael Dunaway
Michael Dunaway, News Editor

Michael Dunaway has been part of the MMOBomb team for years and has covered practically every major Free-to-Play MMO title since 2009.

More Stories by Michael Dunaway

Discussion (52)

ken 11 years ago
im so excited tommorw is the open beta hopefully I like it, sick of cod and this will hold me until warface comes out this spring. ps3 is better then xbox except when it comes to gears of war this it how it goes for me, 1. pc 2. ps3 3 xbox 360, 4 wii u 5 wii, future reference xbox 720, ps4 might be coming out december so cross your fingers.

VizuaaLOG 11 years ago
This needs to be on pc or xbox. this game makes me want ps3 :(

Josef Srpa 11 years ago
Too bad it's not on xbox 360

View 1 reply
Roder112 11 years ago
is it only for PS3 or for x-box too ?

Cyberpunk 11 years ago
Holy crap a F2P title for greedy console???Mind blowing

View 2 replies
gaz 11 years ago
this looks a lot like planetside 2 gameplay wise atleast...

proslayer4 11 years ago
can u play this game on xbox 360 pls tell me

MathiasOrtega 11 years ago
This is not a PlanetSide 2 Clone, Having played both a great deal they are extremely different, While the maps for Dust 514 are small they are going to get bigger. As for the cash shop, You can spend relatively little to get what you want.(Blue prints are around 30-20 aur, 2 dollars gets you 4000 aur, if I'm not mistaken, though that is for militia quality gear) I do wish the drop suits would get knocked down a bit they are pricey. Many of the features of the game have yet to be implemented, There are plans to expand the number of players per match, new match types, and More things for the Merc to do out of battle. The choice for Ps3 was not there original intention. They had Wished that it go on Ps3 and Xbox360 but Microsoft had issues with this idea or that was the just of what i got from the dev diary. But Right now I do feel that All in all Dust is a bit incomplete, it is lacking some of the features that will really put it out away from games like PS2.
But for though's of you who will label it a Clone at least give substantial evidence to back up you claim before you go bashing a game please and thank you.

MathiasOrtega 11 years ago
This is not a PlanetSide 2 Clone, Having played both a great deal they are extremely different, While the maps for Dust 514 are small they are going to get bigger. As for the cash shop, You can spend relatively little to get what you want.(Blue prints are around 30-20 aur, 2 dollars gets you 4000 aur, if I'm not mistaken, though that is for militia quality gear) I do wish the drop suits would get knocked down a bit they are pricey. Many of the features of the game have yet to be implemented, There are plans to expand the number of players per match, new match types, and More things for the Merc to do out of battle. The choice for Ps3 was not there original intention. They had Wished that it go on Ps3 and Xbox360 but Microsoft had issues with this idea or that was the just of what i got from the dev diary. But Right now I do feel that All in all Dust is a bit incomplete, it is lacking some of the features that will really put it out away from games like PS2.
But for though's of you who will lable it a Clone at least give substantial evidence to back up you claim before you go bashing a game please and thank you.

WNxSubzerofight 11 years ago
my gosh yes finally :3 I was into this when i was only PC but got a ps3 so im both now xP well this will be fun.

Cyanogen1 11 years ago
Seems like a PlanetSide 2 clone at best, though a few features I wish planetside 2 had.

J-Man 11 years ago
DCUO is a F2P MMO on PS3, so not the first but good to see more F2P stuff on consoles.

Skullheart 11 years ago
I thought Happy Wars was the first to go f2p on a console.Huh,must be my imagination.lol.Anyways,yeah.I don't understand this at all.Sony accepts Dust 514 on the PS3,which is a direct clone of one of their own games.Which the game it's cloning is f2p too.Sony,you make no sense whatsoever.lol

kayne134 11 years ago
i'm in the closed beta and they have such small maps the games fun though
and yes there is a messed up cash shop in the game but you gain money real fast and stuff

View 1 reply
HellcatM 11 years ago
Since its only for the PS3 they're going to loose a lot of money. This game isn't B2P, when it actually comes out you'll be able to download it for free? If so (and even if you have to buy it) I see it being B2W. 1) its on a Sony product and Sony can be greedy. 2) They're going to have to make their money back some how so I see an aggressive shop. I hope I'm wrong. I don't have a PS3 and won't buy one just to play this game.

Here is what I see happening. They're not going to make the money they hoped for off this game (more people have Xbox's and Wii's than the PS3) so they'll probably end up porting it for the PC after a while. I think this was a test to see how this would work on the PS3, Sony wants to see if they can get some of the PS3 users to shovel the money to them.

On that note it looks like a decent game. Does any one at MMOBomb have a PS3 and are you going to do a first look video?

View 1 reply
Church 11 years ago
Gonna love playing it without you guys. GO PS3 PLAYERS!! PS3 FOREVER

philtothetop 11 years ago
and I though that Happy Wars was F2P? :(

Dragoninja 11 years ago
My dad and brother HATE shooters. They play EVE all the time though. My dad and his friend own a corp. It will be cool now that I can finally play with them. I will make them pay me extra just cuz they know me. Haha. Plus I can make sure there is at least a couple tanks for them to drop in for every mission, big or small. Plus I can get my PC Gaming community to step in and help me out. We are the Merry Band of Ass Kicking Gentlemen and we are going to invade yo planets and snatch yo people up. Bewarez.

dagudman 11 years ago
To bad it is only for ps3, they missed on many people since most of the f2p games if not all are for the PC. Also this is a planetside 2 clone like every other shooter :P

View 1 reply
IHateMMOs 11 years ago
Played the closed beta. Games boring as hell. The whole mercenary and being able to cooperate with people on EVE is cool and makes for a good MMO, but as an FPS, it's very bad.

Snowwww 11 years ago
played CBT, controls are so weird ._., optimization is awful..hope it gets better

View 1 reply
TheEffect 11 years ago
OH HELL YES!!!!!! NO MORE CALL OF DUTY FOR ME!! Cudnt be more happier. Looks like a Planetside 2 on the PS3..

View 1 reply
LightningBenji 11 years ago
Kind of looks like planetside2 for console. By the way anyone knows if it will be able on xbox ?

CrazyHobbit 11 years ago
Is it possible this could come out for The Vita as well ?

View 1 reply
ZhaoYun 11 years ago
so this is just fot ps3 ha?i got a ps3 but i rarely use it i prefer pc so i doubt i will go back on my ps3 just for this one game

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livi 11 years ago
Looks fun to try out

friteris 11 years ago
Is this only on ps3?

View 1 reply
Angelicxx 11 years ago
If this game is like open world I might play it i like open world shooters not so much if ita juat pure pvp tho

View 1 reply
reavermyst 11 years ago
Man, I wish this was available for PC as well. This game looks like so much fun.


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