This game has been funded by donations from players like you. Well, it will be. And when I say donations, think microtransactions.

Right before Leipzig GC '07, K2 Networks announced that their recently released MMOG Sword of the New World was switching to a free-to-play format. To get to the bottom of this switch, Ten Ton Hammer sent their crack team of reporters at Leipzig to uncover what the entire situation involved. Cody "Micajah" Bye has written up the conversation the Ten Ton Hammer staff had with Sword's producer, Peter Cesario, and team operations lead, Phil Maurer, so everyone can learn exactly how that decision came to be. Enjoy!

"There are really two reasons behind our decision to go to free-to-play," Peter said. "First, we wanted to get back to K2's core philosophy: free-to-play games. With Sword of the New World we wanted to try something different by introducing some elements of payment but keep a good portion of the gameplay free to the users. What we found is that it tended to confuse people. In order to eliminate that confusion and really get back to what K2 is all about, we decided it would be best to switch to the free-to-play model. It was an easy decision for us to revert back to the one simple process we already use and simply go that route."

Check out the full interview right here at Ten Ton Hammer.