I see it being free in the next year
I'm not sure how they would convert SWTOR to f2p. Are they going to charge for your class quest? Because class quests are the main thing people are going to play for. If you don't charge for those, not sure what else you're going to make money on. And if people do have to pay for class quests, it's going to turn a lot of people off.
Why am I back here, I don't even play these games anymore
The problem with the internet is parallel to its greatest achievement: it has given the little man an outlet where he can be heard. Most of the time however, the little man is a little man because he is not worth hearing.
The point is that F2P is only more profitable when the game has a certain number of subscribers. Once it reaches that number (and exceeds it), then a subscriber format generates more money. Those games generated more money once they switched to a F2P model, true, but that's only because they didn't have many subscribers to begin with. I'm not quite sure that TOR has reached that level yet.
I bought swtor but don't sub. I'd love it to be B2P like GW2 is. Hmmm tempted to almost level a toon now!
If we're talking games on the scale of WoW, nothing. If we're talking games on the scale of Aion, LotR and CoH, along with the myriad of other F2P MMOs out there, there is plenty of evidence. I hesitate to toss GW in there, but it does somewhat fit the model.
All you have to do is continually provide the carrot on the end of the stick. Realistically, development costs of this carrot are rather small in comparison to large content releases. Keep people wanting the next carrot, and you are financially stable, with a smaller population base, as you work on the next major content push.
I have read a few analytic articles on the subject of this and the comparison between the two, but I don't have the time to pull them up right now as I am at work.
Last edited by Dakia; 2012-06-15 at 04:12 PM.
They'll probably charge for new stuff, not existing stuff. For example: new companions. New outfits. Speeders. Ship designs. Playable races and other character creator options. Convenience items like more bag space or bind points. More character slots. And so on.
Things like new class or planet quests would either be part of regular updates, bundled into paid expansions, or both.
If TOR goes with a cash shop, they can sell all sorts of small useful things that don't make the game play to win but generally just easier. For example: a 2-day mount at any level, exp bonuses, unique weapon models / pets / mounts.
I hope they don't go so far as to remove some of the classes (or advanced specs) and require you to pay to unlock them, though. (I'm thinking of Champions Online here)
That logically doesn't make sense. The way you make more money is by raising more additional revenues over additional expenses. There is no reason why a particular threshold of number of subscribers would mean that a F2P model would be more or less successful unless the number is extremely high or extremely low.
If SWTOR had 1 million subs paying $15/mo, then a FP2 model simply needs to be able to generate more than $15M/mo in revenues (assuming expenses are around equal). The key thing is having things people are willing to spend money on, and being able to attract more players since the amount per month per player being spent will likely drop a bit long term. But those conditions are true no matter what number of subscribers you have.
Your point is more valid not talking about profits, but risk. Why risk going F2P if you have a million subs and are making decent profits?
Ugh... Reading comprehension fail. My bad, sorry.
A real change to F2P would get me playing again. I have a couple of F2P games that I tinker around in when I'm bored. Heaven forbid I don't actually spend any money in their cash shops, but I still boot them up from time to time.
Sir Robin, the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.
Who had nearly fought the Dragon of Angnor.
Who had almost stood up to the vicious Chicken of Bristol.
And who had personally wet himself, at the Battle of Badon Hill.
I quite playing a long time ago mainly due to the terrible engine and "screw the EU we're from the US" mentallity.
Guild Wars 2 can't fail
It's not a subscription based game, so all they need is for people to buy the box, and it's immediately a success. Now I'm not saying it'll be the best MMO ever, or kill WoW or anything, like the guy you quoted might have been trying to say, but it's still unreasonable not to expect GW2 to be a smashing success. Call of Duty, Diablo, and many others are proof that buy to play games that focus on online multiplayer are extremely popular
Rest In Peace, World of Warcraft. Subscriber count doesn't matter, WoW has been dead in spirit for a while
Rest In Peace, Star Wars the Old Republic. SWTOR is a fun RPG, but a bad MMO