Sony Dust 514 beta codes hit PlayStation Home

If you've been eager to get your hands on a taste of the upcoming online game Dust 514, Sony may have your ticket. The company has revealed that there are still beta slots available to users who log into PlayStation Home and go to the Dust 514 space called the Event Horizon Lounge. "Once in the Lounge, talk to the bartender. She'll give you a little info on Mercenaries, and direct you to the Recruiter who can help you get a beta code," Sony explained.

Dust 514, which is slated to be available exclusively on PS3, will be a completely free-to-play affair. CCP had originally planned to charge a nominal price for gamers to download the title from the PlayStation Store, but that plan has been scrapped because, CCP says, it didn't want to confuse gamers. The experience inside the game itself will not change at all.

Dust 514 was built on the freemium model, which means that players can download and play the game for free, but as they progress and want new items or expanded feature sets, that's the point at which they'll need to start forking over some cash. The price that would have been charged, around $10 to $20, would have been immediately converted into in-game currency, so gamers weren't actually paying for the download but were forced into investing at least some money in the experience.

[via PlayStation Blog]