Silverlode Interactive has released a free version of SAGA on schedule, as promised.

The free version of SAGA will allow players to access the game without purchase and without credit card, in the same realms on the same servers with the paying SAGA players. Certain features will be locked, but otherwise players are welcome to join their friends online and participate in online massive strategy warfare without shelling out a penny.

Thousands of players are queued up and waiting for the free version to get a look at SAGA before purchasing, and will be admitted online to join the thousands of players who already have the fully registered version.

Some features are locked, such as the online auction house, official rated battles, and the ability to create and join guilds, but otherwise the free client is identical to the full version. The free version will even allow players to do cooperative party quests alongside the full version players, a feature which is unique to SAGA as an RTS with MMO-style strategy questing.

"We needed to protect the in-game market and other inter-player relations from being flooded with input from free-to-play accounts, but otherwise we have tried to maintain as much of the SAGA experience as possible in the free version," says Kynan Griffin, Content Manager and Producer at Silverlode.

Free accounts may be upgraded to the full version for $19.95. Upgrading the account unlocks all the features disabled in the free version, and does not reset a player's nations, troops or remove any of the items acquired through questing.

Sign up to play SAGA now at www.playsaga.com.