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Paragon’s Heroes Will All Be Free For All Players
Epic has announced that its upcoming MOBA, Paragon, will follow in Dota 2’s footsteps. Rather than using the League of Legends or Heroes of the Storm model, Paragon’s heroes will be free for all players.
The game is headed to early access on March 18, and progress will carry forward. No profile wipes will happen after that point. Starting on March 14, you’ll be able to purchase founders packs at three different price points.
The basic pack costs $19.99, and will include skins, boosts, and other cosmetic items. There are also packs priced at $59.99 and $99.99 that add more of the same and an additional founder’s pack for a friend.
For those that are on the fence, there will be open weekends throughout the early access period. The game is expected to enter open beta this summer. You can also sign up to beta test the game on both PC and PS4.
We had a chance to catch up with Epic at PSX 2015 to talk about Paragon. You can read about that here.
Our Take
Valve seems to have done well despite giving players access to every hero at no charge. Selling cosmetics and engaging the community to boost eSports prize pools is a winning strategy. That’s not to say that Riot and Blizzard aren’t making money selling heroes, just that there is more than one viable business model.
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