World of Warcraft Won't Go Free-to-Play, Blizzard Says

[Lunar Templar]

So?

I high;y doubt WoW going free to play would do shit anyway. With as old as it is, every one ether loves it, hates it or is indifferent to it.

 

[Yuuki]

Sorry but I've never understood this. What should they reduce the price to? $5? $10? $15 a month is seriously nothing, and I'm not even rich or well off for that matter. Is paying every month for a game lame? Yes. Should it go free? Maybe but a "reduced" price won't change anything.

With that mentality, why not increase it to $20 or $30? If a reduced price won't change anything, then it could mean that the subscription exists purely for the SAKE of having a subscription and giving people the illusion that "oh it has a subscription because it's high quality and good support!"...when the exact same quality/support could be delivered off $5 a month, or even free (possibly).

By the way if WoW was $5/m I would happily stay subbed for years and years, just to have a go-to MMO I can enjoy at any time without worrying that I'm not "making the most" of my money (one of the biggest downsides to subscription model).

 

[DugMachine]

Sorry but I've never understood this. What should they reduce the price to? $5? $10? $15 a month is seriously nothing, and I'm not even rich or well off for that matter. Is paying every month for a game lame? Yes. Should it go free? Maybe but a "reduced" price won't change anything.

With that mentality, why not increase it to $20 or $30? If a reduced price won't change anything, then it could mean that the subscription exists purely for the SAKE of having a subscription and giving people the illusion that "oh it has a subscription because it's high quality and good support!"...when the exact same quality/support could be delivered off $5 a month, or even free (possibly).

By the way if WoW was $5/m I would happily stay subbed for years and years, just to have a go-to MMO I can enjoy at any time without worrying that I'm not "making the most" of my money (one of the biggest downsides to subscription model).

I don't know. I'm basing this from my situation. $15 is basically nothing to me and I spend it on something I play often enough to justify. My thought has been if you can't afford a measly $15 a month then maybe your priorities should be focused elsewhere and not on WoW. But hell I don't know everyones situation. I was saying it doesn't make sense to me cause it's never been a big deal to me. I've played for 9 years and not once has it been a problem.

Now what is plain robbery are the $25 transfers/faction changes. Those are just ridiculous.

 

[Baldr]

Nobody is asking WoW to go completely free-to-play, but at least reduce the subscription fee...it's been sitting at $15 a month for the last 8 fucking years! Considering all the free/cheaper WoW alternatives that have popped up, it's simply impossible to justify that kind of money nowadays.
Blizzard is making $114 million a month JUST from WoW subscriptions, that's not including all the extra cash they're making from microtransactions, server transfers, etc. Are they seriously implying that more than a tiny fraction of that is going towards content/support/etc? Bullshit.

The ONLY reason Blizzard are still charging $15 is because players are happy to keep paying that with no thought or consideration (i.e. blind sheep syndrome) because the fee is "still worth it" for them.

You assuming that all the subscriptions are the $15 model. This is far from the truth, the Asian subscriptions work a lot different. You may also believe they pocket the money from the $15 model, but truth is they spend a large portion of that money on the actual operations and service of the game. Have you seen the server operations center. It is state of the art. A tornado hit one of the server buildings, and they managed to keep all the servers effected playable. I don't even think it would be able to operate in it's current form at a reduced price or free to play, it would be much less of a game.

 

[Charli]

They really are raking in so much cash with subscriptions that it would be foolish for them to consider f2p until those subscription numbers are much, much lower. The games that made the switch to f2p were dealing with subscribers in the hundreds of thousands at most.

True. But people will still be surprised because WoW is considered to have one foot in the grave, despite its 7.6 million players. :/

WoW has been 'dying' since... well BC.

I remember all the forum threads... even while the playerbase was near double... man.

WoW will perpetually be dying in the eyes of pissants... Until the moment it actually dies, then all the 'meeeeemmmories' 'nostaaaaalgia' and 'maaaaaaaanthegoodolddays' creepers will suddenly emerge and take over.

I just say either enjoy the great bulging behemoth or ignore it.

Are they seriously implying that more than a tiny fraction of that is going towards content/support/etc? Bullshit. Yes. It does. The server costs, development is faster and more weighty than ever, take the time to look at everything blizzard does to WoW each patch now compared to it's humble origins. What was considered a 'patch' back in vanilla was something like a couple of bug fixes, or a glaring flaw. NOW patches are like mini expansions in their own right. Story, Raids, content is constantly flowing into WoW at an almost unmatched pace.

The ONLY reason Blizzard are still charging $15 is because players are happy to keep paying that with no thought or consideration (i.e. blind sheep syndrome) because the fee is "still worth it" for them.

Yeah. It is worth it. I like what I get, I like the work Blizzard does on the game, and I enjoy myself.

Call me a sheep all you want. I like what I like. And for what enjoyment I get each week out of the game, 15 dollars or 8.99 pounds in my case, a month, is a nothing. Pocket change, More stupid fuckers waste that on a couple of drinks per night, every week trying to connect with someone. I get a month of having fun slaying E-dragons with people I've come to know as really good friends.

There's not much of a price that I could put on that. And it's the glue that holds WoW together in times where the content doesn't necessarily match with my ideals. (Though admittedly during that dark time they gave me Diablo 3 free as a sorry...not great, but whatever, Blizzard do like keeping customers happy for the most part and I'll concede that was a nice gesture)

But thankfully at the moment, it does match. Mists of Pandaria was an exceptional expansion, and I was happy to pay for it. I think and consider very hard about what my WoW sub is worth to me, and I unsub once a year for about a month to rest and reflect on if I want to continue. I can walk away anytime, I'm not any kind of addicted. I enjoy it, I manage my time well around it to no detriment of my health and social life. And it's a good game.

What more do you expect?