What if...

[jstoberl]

Blizzard made WoW free to play to level 60?

With Cataclysm release approaching I think they can really up the number of new subscriptions with this method. A few thoughts:

1) The new leveling process is a lot more streamlined. (I leveled a rogue on beta to 60 in 3 calendar days without really trying to push it extremely hard) So really I don't think it would be that much different than the 10 day trail, but from a marketing standpoint free to play to 60 sounds better than 10 day free trail.

2) Will vanilla wow installs even be viable after the cataclysm? Everyone will see the new zones regardless if you have the cata expansion or not.

3) To get started in WoW it will cost you $120 to buy all the expansions. Give 1-60 free then charge $30-40 for a BC/WotLK Battchest sort of deal and $40 for Cata. This will also be more appealing to people who are looking to get into end level content who are new to the game.

4) with the new model Blizz can claim to have some sort of free model like how other MMOs are moving to.


What are your thoughts on this? Do you see any negatives to Blizzard trying to implement something like this?

[Arshan]

Could be a possibility, might even be smart, but i don't know if blizz regards it in the same way.

[Munk]

I think it would be a good idea, great way to bring in new players and those who are curious about maybe picking the game back up again.

That said im pretty sure it wont ever happen. Blizzard doesnt need to do this, and if there is one thing Blizzard has shown consistently its that they are greedy. No way in hell they would go f2p without a very compelling reason.

[Deleted]

From a marketing point of view (I am a student in that field) I find this an awesome idea. The game itself would than cost 40,-; and is F2P 1-60. This sounds indeed extremely appealing; and gives a good moment to get the taste of the game, which would result in certainly 1 month of payed play (which than; with the expansions will cost you 80: 20 for tbc, 20 for wotlk, 40 for cata,-; included in this price than is another month of free play).

By than blizz has already earned 120,- for the 4 games (vanilla, TBC, Wotlk, Cata) with 2 months of play time.
Currently in The Netherlands you pay 70,- for vanilla, TBC, Wtolk and that includes 1 month free.

I believe that after 2 months people will have found a guild; they made friends, and they are keen on raid/pvp progression. Which causes them to subscribe more.

Put this together with the package deals they have now; (1 month = 15, 6 months = 72, / 12 per month) people will likely subscribe for the 6 months. (Possible add a vanity pet for those who subscribe for 6 months).

So far I could not think of any negative sides on this.

[Subliminal]

Maybe this will happen in 5+ years.

[Caradinist]

The moment their numbers start waning more than new people get in, I'm sure it's something they will consider.

Another thing to consider is that 1-60 is going to be completely revamped for this expansion, and that's an awful lot of new content "F2P" subscribers have access to.

[jstoberl]

I think it would be a good idea, great way to bring in new players and those who are curious about maybe picking the game back up again.

That said im pretty sure it wont ever happen. Blizzard doesnt need to do this, and if there is one thing Blizzard has shown consistently its that they are greedy. No way in hell they would go f2p without a very compelling reason.

I think that if you give someone unlimited time to get to level 60 people will be hooked and be more willing to buy the other expansions and pay a monthly fee. Blizzard doesn't care about income from old expansions. Hell I've played for 3 years I've paid for all the expansions three times over. It's about getting people to drop and keep dropping $15 a month.

[Robofish]

I thought it sounded like a good idea. But they wont, maybe if it was Vanilla stuff as on Live. But after the revamp with all the new content. They arnt going to let that be F2P. nuh uh

[Odexy]

As nice as it sounds, anything F2P in an mmo is generally a sign that it's dying.

[Ari]

what they are going to have to do is drop the prices of the other expansions, they have already done this with the battlechest which you can get for £13, they should probably do a new battle chest that includes the original, tbc and wotlk.

[jstoberl]

Again this isn't about current players, you are buying cata you will play cata this really doesn't effect people that are ALREADY going to be dropping money to go to 85 from 80. You're buying Cata for new content you're not erasing your toons and starting over. Not to mention you're already where blizzard wants you you bought the expansion and your're paying your fees after that they could really careless what you do with your time.

Why does F2P = dying MMO? Income is income no matter how you get it. The games that go F2P add in game item pricing. Remember that time when Blizzard made like $5 million in one day over a mount and XT pet? People WILL spend money on this game, don't act like F2P would be the end of WoW.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

World Of Warcraft is one of the top if not THE top most played MMO at the moment. People who know that are already playing it, and people who dont will play it sooner or later out of curiosity.

I made a friend on the WotLK Release date, When there were over 9000 people in line to buy a copy of the expansion. He was just curious what made so many people stand in line for almost 2 hours to buy a game, now he plays in end content with me.

Sooo i guess its not a profit to them if they make it free from 1-60 , and blizzard is all about profit these days.

[jstoberl]

World Of Warcraft is one of the top if not THE top most played MMO at the moment. People who know that are already playing it, and people who dont will play it sooner or later out of curiosity.

I made a friend on the WotLK Release date, When there were over 9000 people in line to buy a copy of the expansion. He was just curious what made so many people stand in line for almost 2 hours to buy a game, now he plays in end content with me.

Sooo i guess its not a profit to them if they make it free from 1-60 , and blizzard is all about profit these days.

What?
Lets look at how much money Blizz made off your friend:
Battlechest + WotLK = $80
22 months since WotLK relase - the free month you get with vanilla x monthly subscription = $315.

$80 vs $315 What has been more profitable? I'll give you a hint $80 < $315.

The profit margins per account increase the longer you have an active account, because you will be purchasing expansion and you my be purchasing other services (mounts, pets, faction change, realm change etc etc etc)

[MonsieuRoberts]

Good idea. 60 seems a bit high imo. Maybe some features of the game should be barred off, like a cap on how many dungeons/queues you can do per day if you're not paying to play? Maybe you can only have a certain amount of toons as well? BC and Cata races will be off limits, so there's that.

I could see Blizz doing something like this once SWTOR gets an Expansion.

[jstoberl]

Good idea. 60 seems a bit high imo. Maybe some features of the game should be barred off, like a cap on how many dungeons/queues you can do per day if you're not paying to play? Maybe you can only have a certain amount of toons as well? BC and Cata races will be off limits, so there's that.

I could see Blizz doing something like this once SWTOR gets an Expansion.

I think that they should limit you to like 3 toons and one server. Remember they also won't have DKs.

[Agallochh]

It won't happen. They will add WotLK to the battle chest so new players need only buy the battle chest + Cata.

[Clockwork Pinkie]

Who cares about the number of subscriptions. You should take a look at LoTRO and see how they completely ruined the game by changing it to F2P. If you think the blizzard store is bad now, just think of what it would be like if it's free to play. As you know, if you've played a few free mmorpgs. It's not 100% free, never. There's always the cash store that is there to get the crap that should be free. Like in LoTRO, You have to buy mounts, with real money, you have to buy quest to level, with real money, not to mention the player base just gets completely overrun, the old players leave as it will never be the same game. The lag is out of this world. Get to level 20, you run out of quest because you have to buy more, with real money. Going free 2 play will be bad business and it will never ever happen as long as it's their most popular game. But once it dies down when their new mmo is out, it may have the slight chance of being free.

[GrieverXIII]

As nice as it sounds, anything F2P in an mmo is generally a sign that it's dying.

this

[Whatisjuice]

On a side note to this. If you had a lot of people stuck at level 60 because they don't want to pay. It could end in a whole lot vanilla raiding again.