Subscription no longer required for The Secret World

Say good bye to subscriptions in the urban legend MMO The Secret World. Funcom announced on the game's site today that subscriptions would now be optional. That means that after you buy the game for its retail price, you can play all of the content available as of now without paying the $14.99 monthly fee; this includes the four major updates already released.

Even without the subscription option, there is still a Membership option that players can pay for. If you choose to pay the $14.99 monthly Membership fee, you get:

• Time Accelerator (Clickable item which increases experience gain for defeating monsters by 100% for 1 hour, 16 hour cool-down — only usable by Members and Grand Masters)
• $10 worth of Bonus Points (given out every month)
• Item-of-the-months gift (given out every month)
• 10% discount to everything in the in-game store

In addition, Grand Master Lifetime members receive everything mentioned above, as well as an increased 20 percent discount in the Item Store.

Funcom will also be releasing DLC packs that they will start selling in January 2013 for $5.

The Secret World released in July in North America. While it does some things well, GameZone ultimated rated the game a 5.5/10. Read our full REVIEW of The Secret World.