Gods and Heroes Rome Rising to be Monthly Subscription

Heatwave Interactive has announced that their upcoming Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, will carry both a retail pricetag and a monthly subscription fee.

Those who purchase Gods & Heroes at retail or as a digital download will receive one month of included playtime with the game. Heatwave will also provide a variety of introductory options for players to continue their adventure. Warriors of Rome can purchase a one-month subscription for a highly competitive price of $9.99, a three-month subscription for $27.99 or a six-month subscription for $54.99. Dedicated Romans can purchase a year of playtime for $99.99 or a lifetime subscription for $199.99.

In an already crowded MMORPG market with loads of great free-to-play options I’m not sure how well they’re going to do under this model. Many games that were formerly subscription models have dropped to F2P models and it seems that is the way things are going. However, there are still some very good and strong MMO’s like EVE Online, that charge a monthly fee and are wildly popular. Having not played in the Gods & Heroes beta test I can’t speak to the quality of the game.

Gods & Heroes will be available at retail on June 21, 2011.

The only things in the game that seem to differentiate it somewhat are a minion system (where you can gain or hire minions to help out in battle) and the estate system which gives you control of a whole valley (it’s like uber-housing). There won’t even be PvP, crafting or harvesting in the retail launch. We’re lining up an interview with Heatwave to get more information for you.