Monthly SC perk will be replaced with a free Marketplace item.

UPDATE: Please see John Smedley's updated announcement on these changes!

Today SOE announced that EverQuest II Gold Member benefits will be changing. For quite some time Gold Members, who have benefits most closely resembling the old subscription model, have enjoyed a monthly 500 Station Cash bonus. According to the post on the official forums this benefit will end on February 2, 2014. As of February 3rd, Gold Members will instead be entitled to select one single item valued up to 2000 SC each month. All Gold accounts should qualify, regardless of whether or not they are recurring.

In an email blast sent out after the original announcement, it was mentioned that the double token benefit for Gold is now permanent and that past expansion items will soon be available for Loyalty tokens.

See the entire text of the announcement below, and leave your feedback on the official forums.

Dear EverQuest Gold Members,

We regularly evaluate our offerings at SOE to ensure we are consistently delivering great games and products, while also offering exceptional value to our players. Given that we just started a new year it seemed like the perfect time to add more value!

The week of February 3rd, 2014 we will be making a very important change to the Gold Membership level in EverQuest The current benefit of receiving 500 Station Cash (SC) monthly will be replaced with a new program that allows you to select one single item valued up to 2000 SC each month. Nearly all items within the games’ Marketplace will be available for this selection. Players Studio, bundles and additional exclusions may apply. This new benefit must be claimed each month that you are a member as it will not carry over to subsequent months.

We appreciate our customers, especially our valued members, and therefore are excited to bring you this additional value.

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you in game soon.

Further in the thread Tony "RadarX" Jones, EQII Community Manager, clarified:

There won't be a difference between All Access and Gold Membership in regards to this change. This will take affect the week of February 3rd.

An email sent out also mentioned this additional information:

We are also excited that Gold Membership now includes:

• 15% More Coin
• 10% More Mount Speed
• Permanent Double Tokens
• Past Expansion Items available for Loyalty tokens (coming the week of January 6th)