Dust 514 wird doch Free-to-play sein, dies gab Entwickler CCP gegenüber Eurogamer bekannt. Das Online-Actionspiel wird somit kostenlos im PlayStation Network erhältlich sein - und es kann ebenfalls kostenfrei gespielt werden. Ursprünglich sollte das Spiel zwischen 10 und 20 Dollar kosten. Finanziert werden soll Dust 514 stattdessen durch Mikrotransaktionen, aber die Spieler sollen sich keinen unfairen Vorteil erkaufen können. Entweder soll man einen Gegenstand für echtes Geld kaufen können oder man investiert Zeit im Spiel, um eben dieses Item zu erlangen.

"It was a relatively confusing proposition," executive producer Brandon Laurino explained to Eurogamer, "and we wanted to make it unambiguous that this is a free-to-play game." (...) "It's very important as we take steps into this topic to unambiguously state that it is not a pay to win game," Laurino pressed on. "There is no micro-transaction that you can do that gives you an unfair advantage over someone who hasn't paid anything. It's the classic micro-transaction dynamic of, 'I can pay and get this item,' or, 'I can invest my time and get this item.' But neither of those options will give me an unfair advantage over the other."

"Dust 514 Aurum credits can be bought in currency bundles that range from $1, $2 or $10 up to $20, $50 or $100. You'll also be able to earn and use ISK credits, as in Eve Online. ISK credits cannot be bought with real money. AUR credits credits can only be bought with real money. Some items will be exclusive to a currency type, although no examples were given."

"Items available include vanity goods to customise appearances with; boosters that save time, such as double skill point (SP) boosters; variants of weapons that aren't necessarily more powerful - "side-grades" that look or play differently; services like character respecs; and lucky dip treasure boxes. "It's what has emerged as best practice," Laurino said. "