Today Hi-Rez Studios announced that the Recursive Colony content update to Global Agenda will be released in early Fall and will be completely free for all players. The Recursive Colony expansion, otherwise known as patch 1.5, will be the largest update to Global Agenda since the launch and will include a new open zone as well as much more.

Hi-Rez will be attending PAX this weekend and will give attendees the chance on getting some hands-on game time with the new content.

Below you can find a list of the major additions and updates coming with patch 1.5.

• New Open Zone with several instanced missions, quest chains, mid-high level content, vendors, social spaces
• New enemy bots – encountered within Open Zone as well as instanced missions
• Daily Repeatable Quests – for solo agents and teams. Some quests take place in zones, while others send teams into Recursive Colony hive nodes and ruins. These quests include new 4-man defense Raid missions – now available to smaller groups (1-4) at lower levels (20+)
• New Dyes, Flair, and Trails – rewards for winning missions, completing daily quests,  rare bot drops, others given via achievements
• New Pets – new pets available as rewards and crafted items.
• New Blueprints – for consumables and mods
• Easier crafting – components now within the zone, to help with leveling crafting skills
• New High/Max/UltraMax missions entering the Spec Ops queues
• New PvP Map – Push Dust will be entering the Merc queue from Beta
• New PvP Acquisition/CTR Map – Colony Caverns will be entering the Beta Queue
• Revamped Intro Missions – Tutorials now include class-specific elements to help train new players
• Some quests now affect the state of the world (example – Brownouts in Dome City…)
• Ability to transfer between different Open Zone instances (and VR Arena)
• Open Zone cross-instance chat channels
• Disconnect to Character Select Screen without re-login
• Improved Vendor Item Previewing

A teaser trailer for Global Agenda’s upcoming 1.5 patch update was released today called “Signs of the Times”.  The teaser trailer shows 3 different signs have some phrases spray painted on them, it’s actually pretty difficult to make out exactly what’s written without having to pause throughout the video.

The first sign seems to be some sort of fast food joint.  The second asks the questions “Got Water?” and the third I couldn’t really make out everything but here’s what I could:

• welcome to the future
• kill-em all
• welcome something
• something systems
• 2067
• Dawn Boys ??

No information about patch 1.5 has been released yet and I’m not sure if any of those signs means anything.  So if your a Global Agenda player and can shed some light on what if anything those signs mean, feel free to comment.

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Hi-Res Studio COO Todd Harris stated that since Global Agenda made the switch from subscription to free to play, their player base has not only increased by a factor of five, but their revenues  ”are higher than they ever have been before“.

When asked about whether he thinks more and more games will go the way of free to play, Harris stated, “I think more and more will…I do think it’s clearly the direction of gaming.”

Those are some pretty impressive numbers for a game that was on it’s way to an early grave.  Also another endorsement for my P2P is Dead editorial from a few weeks back.

Global Agenda is getting an update tomorrow in the way of patch 1.43, which includes bug fixes and improvements that are listed below.  One being that players can now strap on their jetpacks in Dome City and start flying around, but only if they are a booster member in Global Agenda.  Boosters are the premium membership that Global Agenda players can purchase if they wish to receive perks such as double XP, loot and now the ability to jetpack around within Dome City.

Dome City Changes:

• Boosted users can now JETPACK in Dome City!

Open Zone Changes:

• Bub’s inventory has been expanded to include new dyes and some appearance items.
• Yuma Imports has opened in New Yuma and offers weapons found in the Sonoran desert for tokens and AP

Miscellaneous Changes:

• Changes to Vendor scenes: you can now toggle between modes to preview a character or sell inventory.
• Reduced Level Requirement for the AvA Scrimmage queue to 10.

Bugs Fixed in Version 1.43

• Changed the max durability of Rusted Machete to be consistent with the other Sonoran melee weapons

There’s a lot on the agenda for Hi-Rez Studios’ troubled shooter MMO. Well, troubles no more (hopefully). Hot on the heels of their latest Free Agent announcement, the Georgia developers have dropped patch 1.4, the first version to offer Global Agenda sans subscription fees. With Global Agenda free-to-play, players of all income levels can enjoy fast-paced combat that utilizes the Unreal 3 graphics engine. On top of that, all play styles are catered to, with a diverse set of mission content including OpenZone, PvE, PvP, and Agency vs. Agency.

Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios’ COO, has much to say about the game’s future and the company’s outlook:

“Today Hi-Rez Studios delivers exceptional class-based shooter combat for free…To a free-to-play audience tired of click and wait fantasy MMOs, or unbalanced pay to win shooters, we think that the advanced sci-fi visuals and balanced combat of Global Agenda: Free Agent will be very refreshing. We’ve seen a very positive response from our announcement and have invested in server capacity to handle the increased demand.”

Free Agents should check over at the official site to learn more about signing up. Keep an eye out for Global Agenda’s new web-store, which offers XP boosts, credits, tokens, and loot. Here are the updates coming with version 1.4:

• New revised skill trees for Recon, Assault, Robotics and Medic classes to encourage specialization and build diversity.
• New repeatable missions from Operative Vanik and Ava Lockhart in Dome City.
• New end-game content, Dome Defense, added as a Raid challenge for players level 40 and above. Dome Defense requires a highly skilled and coordinated team to maintain the health of the hero NPC Dalton Bancroft while defending Dome City from waves of Recursive Colony robots.
• Mercenary PvP matches for players level 30 and above now grant separate and better rewards. Increased drop rates for Epic items as well as increased drop of Crescent Jetpack. New Tier-5 Dyes now drop from 30+ Merc PvP.
• PvP game-type Demolition has been re-implemented as Acquisition in which one team must capture a robot from the enemy and take it back to their base; our Global Agenda version of the classic Capture the Flag game-type.
• Many PvP and PvE instance maps have been adjusted to fix exploits and promote more varied and balanced gameplay.

Latest to jump on the F2P train is Global Agenda, Hi-Rez Studios’ futuristic MMO shooter. By mid-April, the devs will release update 1.4, otherwise known as Free Agent, which will enable free access to all of the game’s content. Global Agenda has never had a subscription fee, with the only source of direct income coming from digital & physical box sales. With Free Agent, this $19.99 purchase price will be eliminated, allowing players to download, install, and log-in to the game without reaching for their wallets.

Up until the release of Free Agent, prospective players will still need to shell out the cash for Agenda, though they may choose to do so in light of the promised perks. When update 1.4 rolls around, any player that has previously purchased the game will receive an automatic upgrade to “Elite Agent” status, a rank that brings a laundry list of goodies:

• Earn End-of-Mission XP at twice the rate of a Free-to-Play user
• Earn End-of-Mission Credits and Tokens at twice the rate of a Free-Play user
• Earn End-of-Mission Elite Loot upon winning an instanced PvE or PvP match
• Choose which PvP gametypes you would like to play when queuing for Mercenary PvP.
• Access the Auction House
• Access In-Game Mail
• Less restrictive chat capabilities
• No ads for in-game voice
• Ability to create Agencies
• Higher Login priority

Players who choose to play as Free Agents can look forward to the following features. Click past the cut to check them out!

Continued…

Hi-Rez Studios and Iceberg Interactive have just announced that Global Agenda will be reaching European shores on September 10th, 2010.  The game will be available for box copy purchase throughout a variety of video game retailers in England and Ireland.  The game will also be made available for digital download on the following sites; Play.com, Zavvi, TheHut.com, Shopto.net, and Amazon.co.uk.  For those of you that don’t speak the English language; not to worry.  The German version of Global Agenda will be made available on October 29, 2010, just in time for a possible Halloween event!

Hi-Rez Studios has stated that they are well aware of the game’s fan base across the sea, and has already guaranteed that each and every European player will also receive the free sandstorm update on the games launch day.  Now everybody can experience the awesome combat jet packs, new weapons, modifications, PvP maps and PvE missions, as well as the brand new Sonoran Desert Zone.

Todd Harris; the Executive Producer behind Global Agenda states that,

“We have a very passionate Global Agenda community in Europe, and with the Sandstorm expansion, the upcoming UK retail release, and European servers we’re excited to grow that community further”.

Fortunately the European release isn’t long off,  so grab your ballista and power up those sentries, because it’s time for some more Global Agenda goodness.

Last week, Hi-Rez’s Executive Producer Todd Harris posted a video blog about Global Agenda‘s newest addition, the Sonoran Desert. Unlike the majority of Global Agenda play fields, the Sonoran Desert will be an open zone. Hi-Rez Studios seeks to provide players with a sense of “place” in the game world, as you will finally be able to step outside of Dome City and into this vast, inhospitable landscape. The new zone will feature memorable storyline arcs, as well as a handful of NPC factions to interact or align with.

Continued…

Hi-Rez Studios brings us the Global Agenda: Sandstorm debut trailer, showing us five ways to survive the future. While the trailer looks great anyway, and makes me wish I owned a computer that could run Global Agenda in its full glory, I think the most important thing to note here is the value on offer. We reported that Global Agenda became free to play a while ago, and as long as you already own GA itself, Sandstorm will not cost you a penny extra. I always like to give free MMOs with these kinds of production values a little bit of extra attention – it’s hard to take a risk by diverging from the subscription model when that much money has been put into something.

So if you’re even a little bit intrigued by an MMO of Global Agenda‘s stature being free and releasing a large free expansion, I suggest you check out the gameplay footage above and consider whether you want to try to survive the future with them.

Though MMOs switching from subscription-based to free to play is no longer entirely out of the ordinary, particularly since the successful relaunch of Dungeons & Dragons Online and the anticipated relaunch of Turbine’s other MMO Lord of the Rings Online as free to play, it usually comes later in the life of a game. With this in mind, it is somewhat surprising to see Hi-Rez Studios’ Global Agenda becoming free to play, as it was only released in February 2010, not even five months ago.

Nevertheless, I’m always supportive of developers who choose to go this way, as I’ve been a big fan of subscription-free games in the past. In Global Agenda‘s case prospective players will still have to buy the game itself, but after that there will be no recurring fee. The initial investment has also become a little easier, as Steam has put the game into its Summer Sale in celebration of the change, knocking 33% off the price. This deal will only last until July 5th.

Finally, if you’re still not convinced, there is a completely free trial up to level 15 available at GA’s official site. For more information on the subscription page, check out the FAQ.