Dreamlight Valley loses its spark and drops its planned free to play release

When Gameloft announced Dreamlight Valley, they promised a free to play title that would let you interact with a host of beloved Disney characters, in a world that you would be able to build up as you played and for the most part they have stuck to their word.

Except that upon confirming the games release form Early Access on December 5th, they have announced that the game will no longer go free-to-play as was announced. Here is the statement released on the games official site.

As we look ahead to the official launch, with the learnings we’ve gained from Early Access, we’ve made the decision to remain a paid game for the foreseeable future. This means we will not make the transition to be a free-to-play game when we leave Early Access on December 5.

This choice ensures that Disney Dreamlight Valley will be able to continue delivering on a premium game experience for all players. It’s important to us that we maintain our promise to keep delivering free content updates that add new characters, realms, clothing, furniture, and more surprises to your Valley..

Now that is utter bullshit as the game was promised to be free-to-play after its early access window and the developers have just decided to make it a premium product. With that change, you might expect that it would lose all the free-to-play standard inclusions, like timers and additional currency, well you would be wrong.

Purchases requiring moonstones will remain optional, fair, and match the level of quality players have come to expect. Players will still be able to collect free Moonstones via Dream Snaps and Chests, or optionally choose to purchase them.

The game is still going to offer you the chance to buy their currency, or earn it and then spend it on stuff in the game. Basically it has all the mechanics of a free-to-play title, but without the no dollar entry fee.

A game being paid is not an issue, but promising one thing and then failing to deliver it is something else and while I was looking forward to checking the game out once it was ready, this will no longer be happening.