WildStar: Reloaded Launched, Game is Free-to-Play

Today WildStar, Carbine Studios’ cartoony MMO, has been relaunched as WildStar: Reloaded, a free-to-play retooled version of the title, which should hopefully be more palatable for a larger, casual audience. First, the trailer celebrating the relaunch:

Then I’m going to quote a part of the overview of the changes the developers introduced. There’s a lot to take in, considering these are only brief summaries, including changes to the early game, the combat stats, and the crafting:

WILDSTAR IS FREE-TO-PLAY!

We’re tearing down the walls of a subscription service and offering unrestricted access to the game and its content. New Signature service offers bonuses on top of the base game, which can also be unlocked with gold-purchased C.R.E.D.D. And the new in-game store offers optional boosts, bonuses, and cosmetic items you can buy for cash or with OmniBits a new free currency earned alongside XP when defeating enemies.

COSMIC REWARDS

If you’ve ever spent money on WildStar in the past, or ever do spend anything in the future, you’re awarded with points in our new Cosmic Rewards system unlocking bonuses, benefits, and cosmetic items!

COMBAT STAT REVAMP

What was Moxie, anyway? Our stat system wasn’t always the easiest to understand, and with the Reloaded update we’ve gone back over the games core stats to make them all a bit clearer in name and function.

EARLY GAME IMPROVEMENTS

First impressions are always the most important, and we’ve gone back and completely redone the character creation, tutorial, and intro leveling experience for all characters. Whether you’re new to MMOs or a WildStar veteran, you’ll find a new intro experience tailored just for you.

CRAFTING IMPROVEMENTS

Crafting in WildStar offers a lot of freedom to create customized gear, but it was also sometimes a fairly convoluted process. We’ve gone over crafting again to smartly integrate the new stat changes, keeping things deep and rewarding while removing some of the unnecessary complexity.

IMPROVING RUNES

Runes are the bite-sized pieces of equipment that let you customize your stats and even some of your abilities. The original Rune system could get pretty complex and time-consuming, so for the Reloaded update we focused on making it more accessible to new players, less painful for veterans, and just more fun in general.