Defiance finally free-to-play for Xbox 360 Gold subscribers (not yet for PS3 players)

Defiance is still unprecedented. Defiance the game and Defiance the SyFy TV show had a (near) simultaneous launch in early April 2013. The show feeds plot points to the game, making it the first major network television program and video game to do so—at least to my knowledge.

That didn't matter much, however, because critics from both sides gave them an overwhelming meh. Average TV meets average game.

I hope developer Trion ramped up its server capacity, however, because the game just went free-to-play on Xbox 360 for Gold subscribers. It's about time, too. It launched a year and a half ago, which is a lifetime for video games, but it's two lifetimes for a C- video game. It's unlikely Trion made back the money it spent developing Defiance over a five-year period (from 2008–2013).

If you already bought Defiance, then you've earned yourself some extras:

• 30-Day Paradise Patron Pass
• Grant of 1,000 Arkforge
• Character Slots Base: 4
• Loadouts Base: 5
• Ark Keycode Base: 75
• Inventory Slots Base: 70

I'm downloading the hours' worth of patches for Defiance as we speak. Starting from a place of middling expectations, I'll see if Defiance holds my attention longer than the 360's other third-person online shooter, Warface.

Defiance had a full retail launch on PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on April 2, 2013. It went free-to-play on PC in early April 2014. It missed its July 2014 conversion for 360 and PS3, but here we are now with the 360's free-to-play launch. The PS3 free-to-play conversion is still in the works.