If you never bothered with BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO because you didn’t feel like paying a subscription fee, starting Thursday November 15 you can play for free. Without signing up for a subscription you’ll be able to play as any class and experience all the base game’s level 1 through 50 story content.

Naturally there are plenty of restrictions if you’re a free user. You can only join a few Warzones per week, for example, which are The Old Republic’s player versus player arenas. If, while leveling from 1 to 50, you feel like participating in more Warzones, you don’t need to subscribe. Passes to access content like this more frequently can be purchased individually. These passes can be gifted or sold to other players for in-game currency, so directly purchasing from BioWare isn’t the only method of acquisition.

Microtransactions like this can be made for a number of things, including mini pets, cosmetic items, bags of special items and Legacy system bonuses. Free players will also have their number of available character slots, item storage space, and ability to equip rarer gear restricted, and BioWare will implement ways to bypass those restrictions with paid purchases.

You’ll make these purchases with a virtual currency called Cartel Coins. These can be purchased with real money in packs from $4.99 for 450 Coins to $39.99 for 5500 Coins. If you already have an account, you can see if you’ve accumulated any free Coins so far by logging in on the official SWTOR site, clicking over to ‘My Account’ and then clicking ‘Cartel Coins’.

If you’re still paying a subscription fee for The Old Republic, BioWare says you shouldn’t expect much of a change on November 15 aside from a likely increase in the number of players running around on your server. If at some point you decide to stop paying a subscription fee, you’ll still retain ‘Preferred Status’, which means you’ll keep some of your subscription perks, including cargo hold storage access, access to chat, the ability to sprint and more ways to trade.

Also on November 15 BioWare will launch additional content in update 1.5, which among other features includes a new level 50 quest area called Sector X on Belsavis with a storyline that involves the Dread Masters. You’ll also be able to complete a series of quests that begins in Sector X to acquire the snarky assassin droid HK-51. While this content will be available to subscribers, free-to-play players will need to pay to see it.

Overall it seems free-to-play players will get access to a lot of content without paying anything, though the restrictions on equippable items and storage space seem pretty severe. We’ll have to wait until the full free system goes live next week to determine if free-to-play in SWTOR is actually fun or just an irritating series of reminders that you should pay real money to keep playing.

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Microsoft has expanded its $99 Xbox program. The Entertainment for All plan will offer three models at a discounted price point along with a subscription fee. Players can purchase a 4GB system with Kinect for $99, a 250GB system for $99 or a 250GB system with Kinect for $149. All three models include a two year Xbox Live Gold membership and carry a fee of $14.99 per month.

The announcement follows a single $99 model that Microsoft announced earlier this year, saying at the time that customer credit cards will be charged monthly. Choosing to quit the plan before two years is up will come along with an early termination fee calculated based upon how far into the subscription a customer got before quitting.

Previously, the $99 Xbox was exclusive to Microsoft Stores, but Microsoft now says the plan is “coming soon” and that customers should “check back later to see a full list of participating retailers.”

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

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Sony has announced that PlanetSide 2 will launch worldwide on November 20.

The sci-fi FPS MMO doesn't require any subscription fee and will support hundreds of players in continuous large scale conflict.

Additionally, when the game goes live it will do so with three available continents; so far, only Indar and Esamir have been available in the closed beta. The new continent, called Amerish, will be a dark and swampy locale, with more continents planned for release after launch.

You can get a first glimpse at Amerish in the video below.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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