BioWare Considers Free-to-Play For The Old Republic

[Something Amyss]

Cataclysm didnt do much good for it, and Pandaria, the way its going, is going worser.

"Worser." Amused me for some reason.

Yes, yes, WoW is falling. It's been falling almost since it came out, and will probably continue to fall for a long time. It's still, oddly enough, the titan of the business, despite all this doom and gloom, and none of these games are likely to change that. Wow is familiar and most people don't want to give it up.

 

[dyre]

I might be willing to try it out after I buy/play/get tired of GW2 if it went full F2P. In fact, I'll probably try their current "first 15 levels are free" thing just to get a feel for it.

 

[1337mokro]

300 million dollars for an FTP MMO.

I can't help but smile. The subscription MMO market is thankfully slowly dying. EVE and WoW being the only few that actually make bank and survive on a steady player base. Other than that it's just a matter of time before the business model dies and companies stop trying to make every single game into an MMO.

 

[RJ 17]

I've seen a number of others post this sentiment so I'll go ahead and throw my hat in with theirs:

"Were TOR to go F2P, I might actually look into getting it."

 

[Worgen]

I would be tempted if it went f2p but only if it didn't need origin

I bought the disc based version so I don't need origin

That said, I lost interest in the game by the time my character reached level 11 and stopped playing it and ended my subscribtion for the game.

I wonder if this goes free to play wether I will be able to just log back on and resume my game without having to pay any more?

I'm fairly sure that if it did go free to play then they would make origin a requirement, but it doesn't really matter, it wont go free to play before gw2 comes out and I'm planning on letting gw2 take up all my time.

 

[JaceArveduin]

I like being able to go to an area and pick up a Mini-Pet for my collection, or a mount. I don't like having to only use Money or Y-Currency to buy a pet from a store. Especially when that Y-Currency takes longer to grind out than The Bloodsail Buccaneers Rep. It just seems... well too damn annoying. If the game, when it goes Free-To-Play, keeps a Subscription model that allows me to do what I did in WoW for 5 years (as in, being able to normally get a Pet/Mount without some annoying ***** of a grind like Runes of Magic does) then I wouldn't have an issue with it. The only thing, I have yet to see a model that actually allows you to do that.

Please give me a list of MMO's that does what I want extremely well.

No idea, I don't play many MMO's, and LotRO doesn't have mini-pets. There are horses, some of them are store only, some of them are deeds and reputation only, and some of them are specific to events, but there are plenty of them and a good chunk of them aren't all that easy to get.

And as I mentioned, you can play it like it's a sub game *shrug*

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Yeah, I knew it.

EA must be really worried about that $300 million they pumped into this game if they are already considering going a freenium model after only MONTHS after launch.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Jesus, between DCUO and SW:TOR it just goes to show even a killer IP can't dethrone WoW if it's not as good as WoW. Who would've thought?

A story based MMO was never going to work as pay to play anyway. People keep playing WoW because after you reach the level cap and beat big bad of the expansion the end game is still so much fun. When you run out of quests SW:TOR and DCUO there's just not enough to make it worth a subscription fee. F2P works because players can pick it up again a few months down the line with no hassle if the mood strikes them. I still play DCUO from time to time because it's F2P. I'll buy expansions and stuff too.

It's not even that. WoW as of late been having many problems as of late, yet it keeps going because it just has the largest community. It is a catch 22.

No game can compete with WoW because WoW has the largest community because no game competes with WoW.

It is insanity.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

We all called it.

You can't charge a subscription for an MMO that is in every way inferior to WoW and expect it to work.

How is it inferior? I thought it did some things better.

 

[tehroc]

Except sale reports have already come out and TERA has sold 200k copies so far.

That's low for any AAA game let alone an MMO so my money would be on TERA going F2P way before SWTOR does.

Nothing made by NCSoft should be considered AAA. NCSoft picks a random handful of korean grinders to release here yearly.

 

[cielle]

A story based MMO was never going to work as pay to play anyway. People keep playing WoW because after you reach the level cap and beat big bad of the expansion the end game is still so much fun. When you run out of quests SW:TOR and DCUO there's just not enough to make it worth a subscription fee. F2P works because players can pick it up again a few months down the line with no hassle if the mood strikes them. I still play DCUO from time to time because it's F2P. I'll buy expansions and stuff too.

All of this. I hit 50 and just. stopped. playing. There was no point. I did one raid and it wasn't that different from raiding in WoW. Only in WoW i have a bunch of people I already know and the ability to get enough freaking people to run something. The server consolidations were a good start and I almost feel sad that my sub is running out now there will actually be people around to play with but I can't justify the $15 a month when I am just utterly bored every time I log on. Also: loading screens. die. die. die.

 

[thiosk]

totally called it.

hate to say, but with even the wow audience dwindling, the environment for the megammo is vanishing. this is why i laugh at ongoing efforts to make an MMO out of every single game.

TES-
Lol.

 

[Ickorus]

I totally called it, the announcement is within my projected 6 months so I might be a little off but I got that call pretty damned close.

I think they would have been better off with a Buy-to-Play business model with a cosmetic/convenience cash-shop.

 

[draythefingerless]

The WoW subscriptions will most likely slowly leak into one of these 3 overtime, and the tiranny of WoW over the market is on its twilight.

Much as I enjoy your optimism, I highly doubt this would be the case.

why do you doubt that? what is so special about WoW? Its not the fucking holy grail of gaming. Like all games, the test of time will bring it down. Thats just how people feel. Cataclysm didnt do much good for it, and Pandaria, the way its going, is going worser. They are just prolonguing its weezing existence like a old man on life support, with the pokemon gameplay and the soon free to play payment plan.

Man, that's some intense hate. I'd say that 8 years running is more than standing the test of time, and 10 million subs is hardly a game wheezing on life support.

What I wouldn't say is the word "worser."

where did you see hate?
also, i dunno how your keyboard works, but my E and R are right next to each other, and since i RARELY bother with grammar correction and i type fast, that shit happens. less trying to attack me, more trying to attack the subject of what im talking about, ok?
i dont hate wow, i just dont think its good for the market. why do you think you pay 15 bucks a month for wow, when that is WAYYYY too much for their expenses on the servers and support? monopolies SUCK. specially for you and me. and that is what WoW has bordered on being for 8 years(well lets say 6 since it didnt begin that big). wow last year made the first 20 levels free. this year, their subscription numbers dwindled significantly. there isnt anything going for it after pandaria(and i wouldnt say pandaria is sth to be excited about either). typical signs of a game at the end of its life. pardon my life support metaphor.

 

[Aprilgold]

We all called it.

You can't charge a subscription for an MMO that is in every way inferior to WoW and expect it to work.

If it wasn't for the Star Wars brand, TOR would've been F2P 2-3 months ago.

GW2 could possibly get away with it, but part of their plan is to not have subscriptions anyway. TERA could last using a subscription model too, if they sort out their PvP and a couple other minor/important issues soon.

Such as a race based off of child porn, they need to sort that out big time.

---------------------

Anyone who didn't call it are dumb, I'm just pointing this out. Even WOW is losing subscribers, so I'm going to be surprised if a newer subscription based games appears.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Honestly, F2P is not a death sentence for MMOs... It has been speculated by several journalists leading up to SWTOR's release that the game may be one of the last Pay-to-Play MMOs out there. I currently pay for SWTOR and I don't mind a bit, but if they go F2P, I'll probably keep paying. EA has no one to blame but themselves - they rushed production on the game like crazy, and as a result, there is just not enough content to keep people that are used to a game with seven years worth of content interested.

 

[Saelune]

Ive been eating up F2P on steam, so I welcome this. Only games Ive played on Steam are such. (TF2, EverQuest2, LOTRO)