A question for everyone to ponder on.

Recently I came upon an idea that sounded absurd to me at first, to say the least. This idea caused me to raise a question: Is Dust 514 going to be a true free-to-play game, even when it's officially released? Meaning, would you be able to download a game for nothing and play it freely, only buying AUR items if you want to?

Of course, I told myself initially. That's what we've been told all along. But then I recalled how, in order to develop games on PS3, developers must pay a share of their income to Sony. (Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe that's true.) We know for a fact that there is no subscription model planned for Dust, and we think we know that there is no initial fee either. Thus, Sony's share is going to come solely from AUR-based purchases.

Now, CCP told us that the player-driven market is coming in the future. Hence, the ability to buy any items with ISK, even those that were firstly accessible only for Aurum. That most likely means a great drop in revenue from these purchases, as people are going to be able to pay nothing in order to get whatever they want. Thus, it leaves even a smaller income for Sony, and the idea that came to my head started making much more sense.

Now that we've come full circle, I'll ask the question in its true form: Will there be any initial price when Dust 514 is officially released? For me, this decision seems to be logical, lest CCP and Sony find another stable source of income from the game. What do you think about all this? And, by all means, if you find a direct quote that confirms what I wrote in the beginning, please post it here, I'll be extremely grateful.

Thanks for reading.