F2P Shooter Dust 514 Will Require Initial 'Cover Charge'

EVE Online developer CCP has revealed that its upcoming online first-person shooter Dust 514 will require an initial mandatory payment that can be used as in-game currency. Describing it as a "cover charge" and suggesting a payment in the region of $10-$20, CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Petursson explained to GI.biz [registration required], "You're really getting the game for free but you have to pre-buy credits in the beginning." "We might go fully free-to-play down the line, but in the beginning we have a cover charge just to manage the initial launch of it," he continued. "We have always been a big believer in growing up a social network behind the game in a slow and predictable way. Because we have seen that if you don't do that you can end up with a very unstructured experience, where there's no cohesion to the community." "By growing it at the beginning we help to make a healthy environment initially." Announced at GDC Europe in 2009, Dust 514 is set to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive. "Going exclusive with either platform allows us to do more innovation," said Petursson. "The lowest common denominators would have been so small we couldn't do things that are really interesting." "Sony was quite motivated in allowing us to do things we requested of them to the point they said 'no one has really asked about that before and we've never thought about, but why not?' They were very enthusiastic and open to really do something world changing and that's what swayed the decision to go with them," he concluded.