Dust 514 will be completely free to download and play

CCP has announced that its highly anticipated PS3 FPS MMO, Dust 514, will be completely free to download and play.

There was originally going to be a once-off purchase fee between $10 and $20, but the developer has scrapped that idea.

“It was a relatively confusing proposition,” executive producer Brandon Laurino explained to Eurogamer, “and we wanted to make it unambiguously that this is a free-to-play game.”

Instead, the MMO will use a micro-transaction system to generate revenue. Micro-transactions have proven to be a viable method of generating income for MMOs, and are quickly gaining popularity.

“It’s very important as we take steps into this topic to unambiguously state that it is not a pay to win game,” Laurino pressed on.

“There is no micro-transaction that you can do that gives you an unfair advantage over someone who hasn’t paid anything. It’s the classic micro-transaction dynamic of, ‘I can pay and get this item,’ or, ‘I can invest my time and get this item.’ But neither of those options will give me an unfair advantage over the other.”

Items will include vanity goods, appearance customizations, boosters that save time, and different variants of weapons that are not necessarily more powerful.