Bohemia retires Arma 2 Free, drops Arma 2 price by 75% as thanks

Arma 3 soldiers plan their final push onto Arma 2 Free’s stronghold.

Bohemia has announced that Arma 2 Free will be retiring from duty on 22 April. As thanks to everyone who supported it during its militaristic reign on the free-to-play battlefields, though, the entire Arma 2 series is 75% off on the Bohemia Store for the next week.

Arma 2 Free was basically what it sounded like, offering Arma 2 to absolutely anyone who wanted it. Except without the campaign. Or shiny graphics. Or mod support. Nonetheless, you could still create your own custom maps and play alone or with friends, and you could even play on the general Arma 2 servers as long as they weren’t running content that required mods, add-ons, or expansions! And now it’s dead.

However, Arma 2 and its expansions are going to be 75% off on the Bohemia Store from now until 4 May, and all purchases there come with Steam keys. This means you can grab the Arma 2 Complete Collection for €7.50 (about £6.20, or $10.35), or pick up Combined Operations for €5.00, or just grab the basic Arma 2 for €2.50. Upchoo.

Bohemia haven’t offered any explanation as to why they’re closing Arma 2 Free down, but I’m going to guess it’s probably a mix of things, ranging from “Arma 3 is out” through to “We’d like to free up anyone we had supporting it to work on other stuff.” Considering it was up for a few years and that €2.50 will basically net you everything that was in Arma 2 Free along with a bunch of additional stuff, though, it seems a bit churlish to complain too much about this closure.

Update: Or it’s because I’m stupid and forgot that Arma 2 Free ran on the Gamespy servers, which are being closed down, while Arma 2 is transitioning to Steam. Whoops.