EVE Online's FPS tie-in DUST 514 will not be totally free-to-play but will require a "cover charge" fee to start playing.

A new article at GamesIndustry.biz indicates that players will get the DUST 514 game for free, but they'll have to pay a "cover fee" to start playing the game. Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson stated, "In the beginning you have to pre-buy credits, so you pay something like $10-$20 to enter the game and you get the equivalent number of credits in the game once you do that. We call this the 'cover charge'."

Essentially players will get DUST 514 for free, but they'll have to pre-buy credits up front before they can start playing, however, Hilmar also indicated that the game could go full free-to-play in the future. The pre-purchased credits can be used to purchase in-game goods. What those items are have yet to be announced, but following the recent issues surrounding what's being dubbed as "Monocle-gate" in EVE Online, players and CCP are likely still a bit squeamish when it comes to the topic of microtransactions and the sort of goods that might be on sale for DUST 514. It didn't take long for the EVE Online community to state their opinions, so give it a look and tell us what you think.

DUST 514 is an FPS tie-in to the EVE Online PC universe and was announced as a Playstation 3 exclusive during Sony's E3 2011 press conference in June. CCP is targeting a summer 2012 release for the game.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz