Anarchy Online is now totally free

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In a move that can only be described as surprising, Funcom has announced that their Sci-Fi themed MMORPG Anarchy Online has now gone totally free. You must sign up by January 15th 2005 and the expansion packs Alien Invasion, Shadowlands and Notum Wars are not included and still will require a subscription fee to play. You do not need a credit card to sign up, and this free to play subscription is good until January 1st 2006. You also must be creating a new account, it cannot be an old account.

Some people may be getting tired of elves and gnomes and all the other fantasy characters from all those other MMORPG's out these days. So Funcom decided now would be the time to offer this present to the masses. This looks to be a trial run at a new buisness model to see how they may present new future products down the road. Plus, hey you get a pretty good game for over a year of playtime.

Download: Download Anarchy Online here

Download: Download Anarchy Online torrent here

Register an account here

For all other information go to the Anarchy Online free page

Virtual seating for this event will open 30 minutes before the scheduled broadcast time.

Barb Bowman is a Windows XP Most Valued Professional (MVP) and has been a regular contributor to the Microsoft Windows XP Expert Zone Community since the launch of Windows XP in 2001. She enjoys sharing her own experiences and insights into today’s leading edge technologies. She is a product development manager for Comcast High-Speed Internet, but her views here are strictly personal.

(1 reply) #1 UnaBonger on 15 Dec 2004 - 19:43

Hmm, interesting concept...

#1.1 Callaway on 16 Dec 2004 - 00:17

yea, perhaps the Matrix Online developers should take notice.

And to all those who defend the high pricing, also take notice

#2 simmo on 15 Dec 2004 - 20:08

whoa :|

#3 thenay on 15 Dec 2004 - 20:18

nice

#4 Charisma on 15 Dec 2004 - 20:24

Wow - a great Xmas present !

#5 Chouzan on 15 Dec 2004 - 20:48

Sweet!

#6 Hankyone on 15 Dec 2004 - 21:02

cant subcribe, too many connections

edit: yes it works now

#7 SIG on 15 Dec 2004 - 21:10

This is awsome.

#8 Dennis on 15 Dec 2004 - 21:28

Awesome!

(1 reply) #9 simm_isengard on 15 Dec 2004 - 21:37

Intresting, is the game any good?

#9.1 Dennis on 15 Dec 2004 - 21:45

Ya, it's good imo. I played it before and had fun.

#10 Hankyone on 15 Dec 2004 - 21:52

ok, now its downloading at 6kb/s and still 9hours to wait............

why should i even use dsl then

#11 deiong15 on 15 Dec 2004 - 22:35

well guess you cant register since it keeps erroring out

#12 amoeba on 15 Dec 2004 - 22:36

Very cool. I was thinking about trying it out again after I got my new computer almost two years ago but I didnt.

#13 HawkMan on 15 Dec 2004 - 22:50

Suppose it's a good move to get back the customers they lost by introducing Notum War.

oh well I'll probably sign up anyway for that old nostalgy feeling, but I doubt I'll pay for Alien invasion anyway. I'd rather spend my money on SWG, and stuff.

(1 reply) #14 Toxicfume on 15 Dec 2004 - 23:33

This is very cool, wish everquest 2 had this too

Download speeds are really slow for me right now

both from their site and the torrents. I'm not getting more than 10k/sec :/

#14.1 Hankyone on 15 Dec 2004 - 23:47

currently 123kb/s on the torrent for me

50mins left

(2 replies) #15 pdog on 16 Dec 2004 - 00:05

the title is misleading, its only free till January 15th, thats only like 1 month free. The news topic title makes it sound like its free forever. I'll stick with WoW

#15.1 ElementalDragon on 16 Dec 2004 - 00:12

pdog, u misread, that's all. you have to REGISTER before January 15th to take advantage of the free-ness.

#15.2 bangbang023 on 16 Dec 2004 - 04:36

"free-ness" lasts only for a year.

#16 TheFlusher on 16 Dec 2004 - 01:00

this is nice, just in time for winter break....

#17 fo20 on 16 Dec 2004 - 01:09

alright ppl, anyone wanna start this at the same time with me, im in the process of dling it, but im sure if we all gathered up, we could make this alot of fun at the start. AIM me at sh4k3y

#18 GrymmWolf on 16 Dec 2004 - 01:14

Thank you for becoming a member of Anarchy Online, the worlds leading SCI-FI Online universe! Now that you have registered your information with us, you can log in to the game and enter the exciting, futuristic world of Rubi-Ka with no fees for basic Anarchy Online until January of 2006! (This is a savings of: $179.40!)

No charges will be made unless you decide to start subscribing to any of the Anarchy Online expansion packs. The free trial is considered a purchase unless you cancel before the free period is over at 1/1 - 2006. If you do not cancel you will be billed in accordance with the recurring plan you select in the registration, if you have chosen to enter your credit card information.

The offer is only valid if you sign up a new Anarchy Online account between the 15th of December 2004 and 15th of January 2005. You can play free of charge until 11 2006. This offer is subject to termination at any time and without cause, especially if a too high-increase in server load or other unforeseen events will lessen the experience for existing players. The free version does not include access to any of the three expansion packs. Should you wish to upgrade to any of the expansion packs monthly subscription and client fees will be added.
No rain checks. Offer is void where prohibited by law. Funcom reserves the right and the sole discretion to cease to provide any service and or software described in this publication to all users or any number thereof at any time without warning.

#19 Lanky on 16 Dec 2004 - 01:49

That, is awesome

(1 reply) #20 XxDesmus_MODxX on 16 Dec 2004 - 02:06

wow...i was a beta tester originally. this is sweet, i always enjoyed this game, i just couldn't justify monthly payments for ANY game though....but this is great.

#20.1 XxDesmus_MODxX on 16 Dec 2004 - 02:14

anyone able to download the filelist using the downloader? (not bit torrent) ...it keeps giving me a connection error.

#21 CarLBanks on 16 Dec 2004 - 02:27

I played this from January 2003 till August 2003 and I just quit due to gimping my martial artist accidentally.

#22 devinlamothe on 16 Dec 2004 - 02:34

Niiice. I'm trying to sign up right now but it's going very sloooow.

#23 Caleb on 16 Dec 2004 - 05:10

Wow.

It's just like offering boxes of **** for Christmas.. Exciting!

#24 xpgeek on 16 Dec 2004 - 07:06

Haha

#25 Zaic on 16 Dec 2004 - 07:12

Its nice that some companies let us play free...

i think mmorpgs should be free... they could add ingame commercials or something... like we have in real world...
so it would pay our bill....

#26 RaiderOnline on 16 Dec 2004 - 08:32

i have been download Anarchy Online few days ago for free...
now it's paching now....
Yea....

(4 replies) #27 Sage_Override on 16 Dec 2004 - 09:56

This game was, is, and still will be shi*ty. Friend went on the beta a long time ago and showed me the dynamics. Even I agreed with him and a majority of my other friends that this game is boooooring with nothing to offer. There is a reason this game is being offered free; it's beginning to drown so, to save face, it's drawing in more suckers to act as it's life raft to preserve some dignity. Trust me. When MMORPG's do this, they are only fooling people into believing that this type of deal will last (already mentioned in the article that it won't), and that they are being offered some kind of opportunity. You will NEVER see a major MMORPG being launched for free AT ANY TIME. That kind of sh*t died with Sony's Infantry Online. The game was free for the longest time, Sony realized they had drug in a lot of suckers and started charging subscription fees that included EQ, another sucker game, as well as other sub-par games in the mix to make it seem like a sweeter deal. If you enjoy this game, fine, but don't be mis led.

#27.1 GiB WaKeR on 16 Dec 2004 - 11:16

Hey guess what? It's FREE! Let people try it out if they want, coming from a person that actually played for a few months rahter than watch his friend in the ****ty laggy beta its quite a fun game, I just never got really into it.

Yes it might be hurting in subscribers right now but not because its a steaming pile of ****, but probably more procisely World of Warcraft and EverQuest 2 just came out along with other good MMOs (City oh heroes, Final Fantasy, etc...) since its release a few years ago. Sure its not the best MMO out there IMHO, but hey some people get really hung up on paying monthly fees and this might help attract people to the genre if they give it a try. FREENESS = WIN-WIN

#27.2 Luxor.nu on 16 Dec 2004 - 22:08

Shut the hell up Sage...

#27.3 Sage_Override on 19 Dec 2004 - 10:15

Luxor, blow it out of your ass you f*cking dumb sh*t. I'll say whatever the hell I want.

Gib, you have a point, but the fact remains that this game is not going to be free forever. It is still luring in people that will eventually pay for the game once the long-trial version is up in 2006. Only the smart people will leave and not fall for another online marketing ploy.

#27.4 drewgod on 25 Dec 2004 - 13:37

i actually find it quite fun, its my first ever mmog, and I was admittedly a bit disappointed to begin with ( lag, bugs), but once I found a team, and some friends, you can have alot of fun. Plus, its free, so it gains my hall of fame along with AmericasArmy and WOLF:ET.

Now, im going back to dancing pointlessly in the AO Cities (ive made a few friends, enemys, copycats and money out of it so far

)

(1 reply) #28 sp0rk on 16 Dec 2004 - 11:04

I think this is a good idea. Everyone was whining on the comments for the new Matrix game because it was $15 a month, but you'll jump on this MMORPG because it's free for a year. You're going to be the same people shelling out the monthly payment when January 2006 rolls around because you don't want to lose your years worth of work building a character.

Excellent.

#28.1 Toxicfume on 16 Dec 2004 - 23:11

Some might, not me.

(2 replies) #29 maulia on 16 Dec 2004 - 12:31

I read the reviews while downloading.. seems promising, but all of the reviews complaining about the bugs and crashes + lags. I assume it's all been patched now

#29.1 CarLBanks on 16 Dec 2004 - 13:14

Well from what I've heard the lag hasn't all been fixed yet.

Last edited by 56981 on 16 Dec 2004 - 23:49

#29.2 radink on 16 Dec 2004 - 13:57

I played this game alot, and never had lag or crash problems.

#30 robpears on 16 Dec 2004 - 13:41

kwl ta

#31 radink on 16 Dec 2004 - 13:56

This is a great game. I played it for a quite a while. I think this is a good move. Just sucks old players can't get in on it without having to start over.

#32 Robbobloke on 16 Dec 2004 - 21:36

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/download/html/14886 another mirror for the download.

#33 LVirus on 17 Dec 2004 - 06:20

Heh, last nite I saw sh1tload of newbs asking newb question and wandering around aimlessy. Some poor sob was using weapons NOT suited for his class and .. oh well they will learn I hope

. Now they will read about uber twinkking and buffing guides and ask ppl for nice buffs .. but sad part is that majority of cool stuff and buffs needs eighter Shadow Lands expansion OR Alien Invasion expansion. SL is still better than AI btw -- and SL gives more EXP than basic AO mobs

#34 Hills420 on 18 Dec 2004 - 19:42

I'll have to install this and try it out.

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