Uncharted 3 multiplayer goes free-to-play

Naughty Dog has announced that the multiplayer component in one of the PlayStation 3’s flagship titles—Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception—is going free-to-play. While you’ll still need to buy the game to play the single player campaign, the multiplayer is available to anyone on PlayStation Network.

Free players can play for as long as they want, as much as they want up to level 15. After that, you can still play without paying anything, but progression will be stuck at the level. To unlock the level cap, you can buy Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Game of the Year Edition through the in-game store. To date, more than 3.5 million people have played more than 37 million matches of Uncharted 3's multiplayer. Free-to-play players will be part of the same player pool.

You can now check out the multiplayer without paying a dime... other than for the Internet and electricity...

A quick recap for newcomers: Drake’s third adventure catapults the adventurer headlong into a dangerous search for the fabled relic, “Atlantis of the Sands”, with Drake travelling around the streets of London, a burning French chateau and the heart of the Arabian Desert. The game pits Drake and his mentor Victor Sullivan against an occult organisation and its ruthless leader, Katherine Marlowe.

The Game of the Year edition of Uncharted 3 packs in the following DLC:

• Character Skins Packs 1 to 3: Twenty-five different skins for Uncharted 3 multiplayer, including fan favourites such as Nathan Drake as he appears in the original Drake’s Fortune, or Winter Drake as he appears in Tibet during Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
• Flashback Maps Pack 1 and 2: Includes eight maps that bring reworked, improved environments from Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves into Uncharted 3's multiplayer.
• Drake’s Deception Map Pack: Four new multiplayer maps - The Graveyard, Old Quarter, London Streets, and Oasis – each incorporating its own dynamic events.
• Fort Co-op Adventure: Additional content for the co-operative adventure online game mode, Fort takes players on a journey through the fortress first seen in Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune to seek out Nathan Drake.
• Co-op Shade Survival: Take on wave after wave of some of the toughest enemies from the series – the fiery Djinn. This co-op game mode provides a sturdy multiplayer challenge with handsome rewards.
• Doughnut Skin Pack: If you’ve ever wondered what Sully would look like if he really let himself go, this is the skin pack for you. Five characters from the franchise are depicted in larger-than-life form.

While this may not be the sort of thing that fans of the series might want, since they probably already have the game and have played it many many times, it might be a great way to convince gamers who haven’t yet bought the latest game in the Uncharted franchise.

Check out our review of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.