Modern Combat 5 switching to free to play model

Back in July Gameloft released Modern Combat 5, and with it brought the announcement that there would be no in-app purchases, with $7 giving you the entire game experience. A few months later, IAP purchases were introduced, but at least they were only optional and didn’t break the game experience. While MC5 players were probably hoping that’s as far as Gameloft would take it, today the developer announced that they are shifting to a free-to-play model in the latest update.

As you’d expect, the free-to-play shift comes with more restrictions, namely you’ll now have an energy meter that limits how many missions you can go on over a period of time. There’s also a credit system being added into the game, too. What about those that already paid full price for the game? Gameloft will be giving these players unlimited energy for life, Veteran status, 200 credits and “some other goodies”. Aside from bringing a free-to-play experience to the game, the update will also introduce a new support solider class, additional weapons, and a new multiplayer mode that focuses on capturing zones found in certain areas in each map.

So why the sudden change? First, it’s Gameloft, so there’s that. Second, it’s likely the game wasn’t doing nearly as well as past titles, and so developers likely hope making a change to free-to-play will garner the game more attention. The update has yet to roll out for Android users (it is live on iOS), so if you still want a chance to get veteran status and other freebies, you’ll want to pick it up for its current price of $3.99 before the update lands.