WoW to become a "free to play" MMO?

[Dragonshardz]

http://www.gamesradar.com/pc/world-o...21174930197055

It's a huge link, I know and yes, the search button does not work for the time being so if this is a double post, sue me or something.

For those who want to just TL;DR - it is an interview with Tom Chilton (one of Blizzard's lead designers) who speaks about the possibility of WoW completely abandoning the subscription system. Its nicely elaborated and I wouldn't like to take credit for it so go right ahead and read on.

How do you "feel" this change coming and do you think it will justify Blizzard legalizing gold selling and other services?

[Lolsteak]

There has already been a topic on this, no need for a second one.

[kerwyn]

Unlikely.

[vesseblah]

Pointless thread, and here's why:

If another game comes along and blows us away it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee.

Quoted from the interview linked. WoW is not going to be free as long as it can maintain 11M subscribers and be the most profitable monthly subscription MMO ever. LotRO etc are going free because their subscribers are counted in 100k's, not 1M's, and it's simply not making enough money to keep up without steady micropayments.

[Dragonshardz]

Pointless thread, and here's why:



Quoted from the interview linked. WoW is not going to be free as long as it can maintain 11M subscribers and be the most profitable monthly subscription MMO ever. LotRO etc are going free because their subscribers are counted in 100k's, not 1M's, and it's simply not making enough money to keep up without steady micropayments.

How about their plans for the new MMO? He clearly states that they might go with that model since many of the competitors have already established to be working just fine, no matter the numbers. I did not say they are changing the model with Cataclysm, I just hinted that perhaps it was a good change for brining more people to the game.

[Ðelinqient]

Please no,omg

[Selxxa]

Didn't read, but let me just say:

Bobby Kotick would eat his own scalp before he would give ANYONE a free game. He cannot survive without the subscription fee money provided by WoW. It is his life source.

Kotick must feed.

[Shotzy]

Didn't read, but let me just say:

Bobby Kotick would eat his own scalp before he would give ANYONE a free game. He cannot survive without the subscription fee money provided by WoW. It is his life source.

Kotick must feed.

*Queue CoD subscription fee link*

[Eereus]

the only way this is likely to happen is if blizzards new mmo makes them more money than wow and wow is put on the backburner.

Even then this is highly unlikely due to an 11million strong playerbase worth lots of moolah.

And without that level of money production on content would most likely slow or stop due to lack of funds and lack of motivation(read money) on blizzards part.