Possible F2P incoming for SWOTOR

BloodOmen

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"I think it’s more than the free-to-play model – it’s more that there is a lot of competitive offers. If it was just free-to-play games and they weren’t very good it wouldn’t even be a question but there are definitely good games out there and good games coming out, so of course all of this competition impacts your plan with what you want to do.

Asked whether it would be feasible to adapt The Old Republic to a free-to-play model, Lusinchi coyly suggests that the wheels may be in motion for a drastic change.
The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well. Unless people are happy with what they have, they are constantly demanding updates, new modes and situations. So we are looking at free-to-play but I can’t tell you in much detail. We have to be flexible and adapt to what is going on."

http://www.gamestm.co.uk/discuss/st...e-looking-at-free-to-play-says-lead-designer/
 

Keitanz

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It would be weird if this game goes F2P and DAoC doesn't.... making them both F2P would benefit everyone.
 

BloodOmen

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DAOC should go F2P - the stupid fucks don't realize how much they could make off DAOC going F2P really.... the problem is they would have to sink some money into it first and they probably don't want risk it despite DAOC still having vastly superior PVP to any game currently on the market.
 

svartalf

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Massively said this too. I guess they're shitting bricks over GW2's impact.
massively.com said:
EA boss: SWTOR 'absolutely going to embrace' free model
by Jef Reahard on Jun 15th 2012 2:00PMSci-fi, Business models, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Star Wars: The Old Republic0


There's more news incoming on the Star Wars: The Old Republic free-to-play front. Electronic Arts boss Frank Gibeau recently talked business strategy with GamesIndustry International.

"We're going to be in the business from a long-term standpoint so absolutely we're going to embrace free access, free trial, ultimately some day we can move in and embrace that model," he tells the website. Gibeau also stresses that EA is "really proud of Star Wars" and "really excited about the launch."

He stops short of sounding the death-knell for the subscription model, though. "I don't think subscriptions ever go away, but when you have an IP as broad as Star Wars, we're definitely going to look at opportunities to grow that business and look at different ways of bringing customers in and serving them," he says.



Tags: bioware, ea, electronic-arts, Frank-Gibeau, lucasarts, sci-fi, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, sub, subscription-fee, swtor, swtor-f2p, swtor-free-to-play, the-old-republic, tor

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http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/06/15/ea-boss-swtor-absolutely-going-to-embrace-free-model/
 

Soazak

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Game's a flop.

F2P won't change the fact that neither the PvE nor PvP really captured the respective crowd.

@DAoC f2p, I dunno, while I think it would attract more people, what would they actually buy? Atm EA-Mythic have a good little thing going on with everyone needing 2+ accounts.
 

Raven

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The pve wasn't anything that wasn't done better elsewhere and the pvp was so restrictive as to make it an utter ballache to bother with...who the hell wants to play huttball all the time?

It was just a single player game with a monthly subscription for all intents and purposes...a very good single player game I must add, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to 50.
 

Madmaxx

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The pve wasn't anything that wasn't done better elsewhere and the pvp was so restrictive as to make it an utter ballache to bother with...who the hell wants to play huttball all the time?

It was just a single player game with a monthly subscription for all intents and purposes...a very good single player game I must add, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to 50.

Yeah I gotta say getting to 50 was probably the best levelling I've done as I don't think I felt I was grinding for too long at any point.
 

PLightstar

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I might give the PvE a go if it goes F2P. A Few of my mates enjoyed the PvE stuff, but never got into the PvP.
 

Keitanz

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@DAoC f2p, I dunno, while I think it would attract more people, what would they actually buy? Atm EA-Mythic have a good little thing going on with everyone needing 2+ accounts.

Everyone needing 2 accounts is one of the reasons DAoC isn't doing too well... having to pay £18 a month is pretty ridiculous.

They could sell levels/bounty points etc.. it'd do really well.. as while DAoC graphics were last updated in about 2004 they are still very nice.
 

old.Tohtori

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That's not really swying they're going F2P though, it's saying "One day we will go F2P when we're done with the game, this might be tomorrow, or 10 years from now."
 

Aada

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Put it this way EA certainly won't be giving the green light for any MMO for a few years, Warhammer/Starwars both big money MMO's that have totally failed, it's funny that the oldest MMO they run at the moment has more subs than Warhammer which is Ultima Online which has had a healthy sub base for years and years and continues to be stable.
 

svartalf

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Here's an article about it:
massively.com said:
It's official: SWTOR is going free-to-play [Updated]
by Justin Olivetti on Jul 31st 2012 3:30PMSci-fi, Business models, Star Wars: The Old Republic0


EA BioWare is making the jump to lightspeed -- and free-to-play. That's right: As of this fall, Star Wars: The Old Republic will transition to a hybrid F2P business model.

Players who choose to engage in free-to-play will be able to experience a majority of the game for free, including the first 50 levels and all eight classes. BioWare did state that there will be restrictions, but those can be removed with microtransactions.

SWTOR will still be available in the standard subscription model. Subscribers will be given an allowance of store currency, called Cartel Coins, to buy customizable gear and other niceties. Current subscribers and those who sign back up before the fall can also rack up special rewards for when the transition is made.

BioWare GM Matthew Bromberg said that this is the next logical step for the game: "Players want flexibility and choice. The subscription-only model presented a major barrier for a lot of people who wanted to become part of The Old Republic universe."

Check out Massively's recent Hyperspace Beacon column on why F2P was inevitable for the game. BioWare's also posted a F2P FAQ with all the nitty-gritty details.

[Update: During this afternoon's investor call, EA President Frank Gibeau revealed that SWTOR subs have dipped below one million but are still well above half a million. Forty percent of those leaving do so because of subscriptions. The game claimed 1.3 million subs last May and had leveled off at 1.7 million in March, having sold in the range of 2 million copies.]


Tags: bioware, breaking, ea, electronic-arts, f2p, free-to-play, lucasarts, Matthew-Bromberg, sci-fi, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, sub, subscription-fee, swtor, the-old-republic, tor
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Ctuchik

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Feature list.

http://www.swtor.com/FREE/features

Have no problems with Operations being subscriber exclusive. Slightly weary about the rest of the limited content, does that mean they can do all space missions and group oriented instances once or twice per week or do F2P players have to pick and choose because they will only be able to do x numbers per week total, i'm suspecting the latter.
 

Mabs

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19077238

Another MMO built on the WoW model cant hold onto any subscribers. quelle surprise.

are we finally getting to the point where somebody might try something new?

you mean like Secret World ? look how well that did

tbh: MMOs were only ever a niche, and it became popular with the short attention span retards as they can stat whore and epeen around, thats what killed it, not the games themselves

cut back to 2-300k people playing EQ1, budget accordingly, win.. stop trying to out do themselves
 

rynnor

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Hybrid free to play is a great money earner too - I think EA will do ok moneywise from this and it tends to re-invigorate the populations.
 

Soazak

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Quite an interesting choice, I can see that working for both regular subscription players and casuals that want f2p. Might even pop on myself occasionally to have a go, ignoring the pvp the game was actually pretty fun.
 

Ctuchik

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cut back to 2-300k people playing EQ1, budget accordingly, win.. stop trying to out do themselves

The only way i can see that happening is if an indie dev decides to make an MMO. And they don't have the cash for it without a publisher. But publishers also means investors and shareholders that wants more bigger better newer faster, because that they think = money....
 

BloodOmen

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the problem with MMO budgets these days is the amount of people that thrive on good graphics, they fail to realize that graphics just don't make the game.. it can be the most spectacular looking game in the world and still be a bag of shite :p that's why Everquest is still so popular, wank graphics but good gameplay.

If they just found a healthy balance and came up with the typical MMO wants (like raids, pvp, dungeons, items etc) they would already have a good start point, where they go from there is basically just common sense and not shooting above the belt.
 

Mabs

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The only way i can see that happening is if an indie dev decides to make an MMO. And they don't have the cash for it without a publisher. But publishers also means investors and shareholders that wants more bigger better newer faster, because that they think = money....

no i understand that, its just that its going to be a victim of its own success as a genre i think :(
 

Dossi

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Game's a flop.

F2P won't change the fact that neither the PvE nor PvP really captured the respective crowd.

@DAoC f2p, I dunno, while I think it would attract more people, what would they actually buy? Atm EA-Mythic have a good little thing going on with everyone needing 2+ accounts.

F2P to certain level or realm rank wouldn't be such a bad thing; I actually like the idea of F2P to lvl 50 rr3 or something along those lines.
 

BloodOmen

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F2P to certain level or realm rank wouldn't be such a bad thing; I actually like the idea of F2P to lvl 50 rr3 or something along those lines.

Thats what I said awhile back, F2P DAOC capped at RR4 or such + higher rr's for paying players (right upto rr20 or so) still not sure why they haven't yet, pretty sure they said "We're managing to stay afloat with our current subscribers" which in itself is a wanky excuse, nothing would stop them opening additional servers when the need arises for it, F2P and a tiny bit of advertising would rake the players in for DAOC because it still to date has the best PVP around despite its age.
 

Ctuchik

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no i understand that, its just that its going to be a victim of its own success as a genre i think :(
That's our fault, not the people making or publishing the games. We (the players) are the driving force behind what's happening here because we are so incredibly hard to please.

Most of us MMO players are an unforgiving fast to judge lot that doesn't take kindly to things we don't like or if we find something wrong and it's not "fixed" fast enough.

Right now i don't think it will matter how the devs release a new MMO, if it can't compare or compete to x y or z MMO in terms of content then it's going to "fail" because new MMO's always has less of everything, and many MMO players won't accept that.

What i think we actually need is for the "MMO bubble" to explode in our faces so the devs could start over from a blank slate, like when the console market crashed in the 1980's, and then hope to god we won't get another "WoW phenomenon"...
 

old.Tohtori

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LoL is free to play, i had no reason to put money in it, and i've put 30€ in it just because it's worth it.

Let people pay what they want, make the bought stuff non-power and more on the horizontal scale and you'll see a lot of returns.

Who here wouldn't pay, for example, 2€ to unlock machine guns for a bounty hunter?
 

Ctuchik

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Or double edged lightsabers for non shadow/assassin jedi/sith? :)
 

old.Tohtori

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Yeah, there's really no so called limit on how a class can be upgraded sideways, which would make people pay, yet be in the same powerlevel as the rest.

If it's technically a reskin of skill icons and meshes, it's a lot better value still for the player and easier then extra content. Extra content could be ofcourse be in the guild wars style, pay once and done. People never seem to have a problem with buying DLC/xpacks.

Someone in the dev team would just have to sell it to the moneyguys.
 

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