Free To Play
It has just been announced that less than a year since launch Star Wars: the Old Republic will be going free to play. They are adopting a hybrid model where you can choose to be a subscriber and get full access to the game or a free player and have (severe?) restrictions to what you can do. You can see the official page comparing the free and subscribed players’ restrictions and advantages.
http://www.swtor.com/free/features
Together with the announcement about the conversion to free to play we have also seen a promotion of the page detailing all the new content that we’ll see “by the end of the year”. The page also details that current subscribers and those that keep a subscription going will be rewarded with “Cartel coins” with which they will be able to “buy unique items as a part of our Reward program”. You can see the official page detailing the Cartel coins and the cash shop (or Cartel market as they call it) here.
I’ll be doing an editorial about this in the coming days and we are still waiting for official subscription numbers that will be released within the next 2 hours.
I would love to hear your opinions about what this means for SWTOR and whether this is a good or a bad thing. I would also love to hear what you think if this means that SWTOR has failed, succeeded or just changing plans according to the current state of the MMORPG market. Any community feedback is welcome.
5 Responses to “Free To Play”
Way to late on this. And restrictions? Bad move there.
I can’t say that I’m surprised. My feelings are mixed about this. Part of me is very disappointed in Bioware for not paying attention to how other successful MMORPGs have thrived in today’s environment. Part of me glad that it is happening, albeit a little too late. But as usual, there statements only raise more questions. What type of restriction? Are there going to be free-to-play servers only? Will the free-to-play player be mingling with those of us how are subscribers? What will be the impact to using Group Finder? If this Cartel Market isn’t going to provide upgrades for upcoming content, is it worth it?
Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter. I’m going to keep enjoying the game regardless of what they do.
Since, as I read the page and digest the info given, there’s no apparent restrictions on the core 1-50 game, and there are a few limits on Ops and FP’s, I’m led to believe the restrictions to the F2P’ers will be mechanical. But what sort of restrictions? Are we talking Legacy options and social gear, adaptable or otherwise? Or are we going to see locks on orange-letter gear and other similar restrictions?
It’s a slippery and worrying slope, open to rampant speculation and flame-tossing idiocy. I’ll be watching from a safe vantage point. Upon that overlooking cliff.
ehh F2P has done wonders for DDO, LotrO, and DCUO so I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. I’ll play till the game is no longer fun.
Done wonders? Those games have all but fallen off the map. Which i am afraid is now the set course for SWtoR. Very sad, that EA would expect people to pay monthly and stand behind a game they themselves are not willing to stand behind. I waited two years for this game to come out and they abandon ship after 3 months, cause they dont have 10 million subscribers out the gate. It seems to me all they wanted was a cash cow and when that didnt happen immediately, they chose to bail. I am going to keep my subscription and play it til the end, cause i really like this game. I am very affraid that the quality of it is gonna take a sharp decline cause EA has all but given up on it. In all honesty the game probly wont see 2013. 🙁