Dust 514 to require initial ‘cover charge’

When Dust 514 launches exclusively on the PlayStation 3 next year, you’re going to need to cough up a ‘cover charge’ if you have any intentions to actually play it.

In a statement given to GI.biz, CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson stated that the cover charge will be used to help support the game at launch. In exchange, you’ll get in-game currency equivalent to the $10-$20 cover charge.

“In the beginning you have to pre-buy credits, so you pay something like $10-$20 to enter the game and you get the equivalent number of credits in the game once you do that. We call this the ‘cover charge’.”

“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.”

There you have it. Dust 514 will essentially be free, you’ll just have to pay to make it free. Or something.