The buck stops at Ragol, in Japan at least. We already knew there was gonna be some sort of periodical charge for playing PSO, but here are the numbers in writing: The first 30 days are totally free, so if you're strapped for cash, cancel all appointments and surge through the game in a month and you'll be good to go until PSO 2. If you intend on taking your time, however, better set some yen aside. After the 30 day trial period, you must buy a "Hunter's License," which goes for ¥400 and is good for the next 30 days. If you plan on sticking around for a while, it's a better deal to go for the ¥1000 license, which doesn't expire for a full 90 days after purchase. Hunter's Licenses can be bought with credit cards or Sega of Japan's "web money." Oh yeah, there's no charge for the demo version released to the pre-order customers.

   That's really pretty cheap; there's probably no profit involved at all. It's most likely all the earnings from the monthly charge will go to maintaining the servers. And, of course, this only applies to Japan. SoA and SoE haven't announced anything yet, but the fact is that there has not yet been an online RPG of this magnitude that didn't charge a nominal periodic fee for playing. It wouldn't be feasible, but if the asking price is as reasonable as SoJ's, I don't think many of us will have a problem.

   -- Green Gibbon!

Compiled and arranged by Jared "Green Gibbon!" Matte. Hosting provided by Emulation Zone and Emulation World.