Sparkypants Studios and Gameforge 4D recently moved their customizable RTS game, Dropzone, from being a fully-priced title to being a free-to-play title.
The game focused heavily on online multiplayer, and the developers feel as if they can better leverage the platform going free as opposed to being paid.
Sparkypants co-founder Jason Coleman appeared in a video recently to talk about the differences between the paid and free versions of Dropzone, which you can check out below.
In addition to going free-to-play today, they also added in ranked play for competitive players. So those who want to be able to level-up their rank they can do so now. Additionally, they’ve added the new 3-vs-3 team battle mode and this is complimented with a new party system and party queuing.
Originally Dropzone was a 1-vs-1 RTS game where players will duke it out against each other in singular combat. But with the addition of the team modes where you can play with friends, it adds a whole new strategic dynamic to the game. All of the latest features can also be previewed in the free-to-play trailer below.
In addition to going free-to-play, adding new modes, implementing ranked play and giving gamers options to party-up, they also patched the game with a number of fixes and additions, including new rewards and daily bounties, a new four-mission campaign mode has been added, and the UI has been updated to reflect some of the new changes being added to the game.
Since Dropzone only just recently went free-to-play, it’s hard to gauge what the community feedback is like at the moment, but I’m sure we’ll find out later on as gamers get more familiar with the new features and the new way to play.
Even though the game has been in Early Access for two months, they don’t expect to stay there much longer. Their ETA is “several months” in total, so it looks like Dropzone may end up being another Early Access success story, which are far and few between many other titles that end up on Early Access and stay stuck there as if it were development purgatory.
You can check out Dropzone right now by visiting the Steam store page, where you can download the client free of charge.
