Haven And Hearth Eternal Alpha Launches

Haven and Hearth developers released their Eternal Alpha patch today, unleashing a number of updates including a graphical overall among other features. The mythology inspired game has been in development for a number of years, with only two developers working on the game. Up until now the game has been entirely free-to-play but the new update introduces a subscription service and an in-game currency that can be exchanged for "Game Time."

Haven and Hearth is largely a free-to-play game with no pay-walls or restrictions on free accounts. However, free-to-play players are limited to the amount of time they can invest into the game. From the Haven and Hearth website free-to-play accounts have access to:

• 48 hours of initial Play Time
• 12 hours of Play Time refilled monthly
• Full and unlimited Gameplay

And Play Time will only tick down while players are logged into the game. So, as a free-to-play player your allocated 12 hours a month for the first 4 months before you're required to spend money on the game.

Or, players can choose to pay a one time cost of $15 to Verify their account, adding:

• 24 additional hours of Play Time, immediately on purchase
• 24 hours of Play Time refilled monthly
• Full and unlimited access to the Old Legacy Haven & Hearth (for as long as it lives)
• An in-game hat in honor of your verification

If a player does run out of time they can purchase additional game time for $15 a month, or purchase a lump sum number of months at a reduced cost. Game time is provided as a in-game token, similar to PLEX in Eve Online, and it can be freely traded or given to friends as a gift. Using the phrase "Game Time" may explain some player's ire as it implicitly sounds restricting. But owning a Game Time token equates to unrestricted play regardless of how much time you've been logged in. Perhaps a better term might have been "Gnome Gold."

And then there's a subscription service, beginning at $10 a month.

If you truly love us, the Game, and Rainbows & Unicorns, then you should definitely consider a Subscription. We offer Subscriptions at three different tiers – Bronze, Silver & Gold – and in four different time intervals – 1, 3, 6 or 12 Months – for a grand total of 12 different subscription offers.

It's important to note that Play Time is unlimited while a subscription is active.

The pay-for-time strategy has proven to be contentious on the Haven and Hearth forums. But it is on par with other subscription games. Ultimately, purchasing a subscription is actually cheaper than Haven and Hearth's contemporaries. And players have up to 12 hours of game time to decide whether they want to support the project or not, in contrast to supporting an Early Access project that may or not see fruition.

Learn more about Haven and Hearth by visiting the game's website.