RIFT’s upcoming free-to-play conversion brings with it a number of changes to the game as well as some new additions that are being added to support the new in-game store. Creative Director Bill Fisher took some time this week to discuss some of the newest stuff that players can expect to see and how they’ll function in RIFT’s new payment model.

One of the big new additions comes in the form of REX, a new in-game currency and also short for RIFT Exchange. In a nutshell, REX can be used for store credits and obtained by players as items with real-world currency. Once obtained, REX can either be sold to other players on the auction house or consumed to add credits to use in the RIFT Store. Trion will only allow REX to be sold to accounts that are in good standing and that have been verified by Trion as a real person and not a bandit bot or hacker. REX will only be available for purchase to a player in a limited amount, but Trion didn’t offer any solid numbers in the blog.

If you’re the generous sort that likes to lavish friends with shiny gifts of the virtual variety, you’ll be happy to learn that the option to gift items will also be available. Once the new free-to-play store is live, you can purchase an item and choose to Gift it to a friend. The option even comes with a choice of packaging color and a custom message.

RIFT will make the jump to free-to-play with the release of Update 2.3: Empyreal Assault on Wednesday, June 12th, 2013.

Source: RIFT Dev Blog