ShootMania Storm will offer two modes for free

Nadeo's TrackMania games traditionally ran under a free-to-play model of sorts but TrackMania 2 Canyon shook that up by simply charging a cover price, and it seemed ShootMania Storm would too. Not so. Nadeo's first FPS will in fact return to the old way, publisher Ubisoft announced today, and offer two of its many modes for free.

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Nadeo's TrackMania games have traditionally ran under a free-to-play model of sorts, but TrackMania 2 Canyon shook that up by charging a cover price. It seemed ShootMania Storm would too. But, not so. Nadeo's first FPS will, in fact, return to the classic monetization model, publisher Ubisoft announced today.

Two modes will be made available for free: the Elite and Royal modes. Elite is a 3v3 team mode played in rounds of 3v1, where one player has a railgun and their three foes are armed with rocket launchers. Royal is a free-for-all deathmatch mode with maps built around one central control point, which triggers a crushing dome of death to move in and kill everyone in its wake.

This is all part of a plan to make ShootMania big on the competitive gaming scene.

To play all the other modes, you'll need to buy the full game. It'll cost $20 but you can pre-order now for $15.99, or cheaper in multi-packs. Pre-ordering also gets you into the beta test.

Look, here's a trailer accompanying today's announcement:

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 31, 2012 4:00 PM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, ShootMania Storm will offer two modes for free.

    Nadeo's TrackMania games traditionally ran under a free-to-play model of sorts but TrackMania 2 Canyon shook that up by simply charging a cover price, and it seemed ShootMania Storm would too. Not so. Nadeo's first FPS will in fact return to the old way, publisher Ubisoft announced today, and offer two of its many modes for free.

    • reply
      August 31, 2012 4:23 PM

      That sounds cool.

      I've already pre-ordered, but while fun, the game wasn't really grabbing much interest from people. Having those two game modes be free will hopefully increase interest in the game. Having Elite free will hopefuly increase the interest of the game as an E-Sport (which is part of the aim of the game), and Royal is a fun and interesting game mode that will hopefully get more casual players of the game interested. The full game also includes a capture the poles (capture points) and free for all modes, as well as game modes that players create (the game includes level and script editors, and jailbreak and a few other game modes have already been created).

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      August 31, 2012 11:49 PM

      Eh? TrackMania games have never been free-to-play. Addons (a.k.a DLCs, these days) have always been free, though.

      Well, there's Trackmania Nations but that's more like a free demo.

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        August 31, 2012 11:52 PM

        Trackmania is known for the free Nations. Millions and millions of players.

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          September 1, 2012 12:08 AM

          Sure, but that does not entitle the first sentence at all. It's so incorrect.

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            September 1, 2012 12:19 AM

            "of sorts"

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              September 2, 2012 4:46 PM

              How does 'of sorts' make it any less false? only a single installment was f2p, and it was a much smaller game, with only one environment and one car.

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        September 1, 2012 12:36 AM

        No, I'd say they qualify as free-to-play of sorts. The free Trackmania versions go far beyond a regular demo, but they don't have the microtransaction-a-rama typically associated with the model. So, free-to-play of sorts.

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          September 1, 2012 1:54 AM

          Nations is the only free, and very small, part of TrackMania with only one car/environment. Every other car/environment costs money. You can't speak of TM being "traditionally" free-to-play with 1/8th of its whole content being F2P.

          The first sentence gives a wrong impression of TM. That's my point in this.

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            September 1, 2012 2:09 AM

            I don't think so. The free part is so big that people can happily play it forever, especially with all the player-made maps. Heck, after I bought TrackMania United, I still mostly played the free bits.

            It's not conventional free-to-play, but it is F2P of sorts.

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            September 1, 2012 2:58 AM

            [deleted]

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      September 1, 2012 2:06 AM

      Ubisoft? :-( I'm always afraid of installing any Ubisoft software due to their DRM tools.

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        September 1, 2012 7:11 AM

        It seems that Nadeo learned the lesson with StarForce, and their games have since come without DRM, just an online activation.

        Still, since Ubi bought them, most of the money will go to Ubi, which is why I'll sadly not buy it. Ubi needs to go bankrupt.

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          September 2, 2012 4:48 PM

          Can you play tm2 without connecting to nadeo serves?

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      September 3, 2012 6:19 AM

      Does anybody actually like this game? I mean I'm a huge fan of fps games, play quake 3, tribes and cod on a daily basis, but this game doesn't do a damn thing for me. Maps are tiny, matches are even shorter then quake matches. And only one gun!! wtf!!!

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