After taking the risky decision to turn paid-for MMO DC Universe Online into a free-to-play game at the beginning of the month, many wondered if the strategy would breathe new life into the ailing game, or simply mean the loss of the remaining revenue from subscribers. Well, if the latest figures are anything to go by, it looks like the move has been very successful.
John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment, yesterday announced that the game had gained 120k new PC users, but today revealed that figure has jumped to 330k, presumably now also including PS3 figures:
Wow. Over 330k new players. Concurrent usage is up 600% in DCUO! F2P FTW!
Unfortunately, the increased interest has caused SOE’s “super servers” to buckle, with huge load times and bugs affecting players. Smedley, however, has assured gamers that the developer is fixing the problem:
We are tracking down a server bug that’s cropped up on our US servers under insane load. Sorry for the up and down servers. We are on it.
With a massive TV advertising campaign still to come, the number of registrants is surely only set to rise, ensuring that DCUO will be here for some time to come.
