WoW going free to play sooner than later?

[ReleaseDay]

Fuck F2P and fuck threads like these to lower the moral of wow players. Wow isnt dying, if you say it then you can die

[Azrile]

Man Seranthor, you really are in denial arent you?

Just because WoW will go free to play, does not mean they will lose more money than they take in currently. You have no clue how finance and revenues work, so please stop spewing out garbage as if it is factual information.

Blizzard's own executives stated that by the end of this year, they EXPECT subscriptions to be lower than they are now. They are losing subs and they know it. They know the rate of decline, and a free to play model like star wars will probably be a great way for them to continue to increase revenues, while still allowing people who want to pay $15 a month to do so for unlimited access to everything they develop.

Seriously, people need to stop worshiping the ground Blizzard walks on... because that ground is thin ice in the middle of a lake, and if you continue to do so, you may just fall into a icy watery grave.

---------- Post added 2013-05-10 at 07:20 PM ----------



I cant wait to say "I told you so" to you and everyone else who (in denial) believes this way.

They expect subscribers to be lower at the end of the year because they know they lost china because of a certain f2p game that was released there. Everyone knew that when Wow had 12M subscribers it was about 6M west 6M china. My guess is at the end of the year, it will be 5M west 2M china. There is no reason for those casual internet cafe players in china to pay for wow when they have a high quality f2p game that is sponsered in every cafe now. Wow is fine, their money is coming from the west anyway.

[DeadmanWalking]

Neverwinter is shaping up to be similar. To even respec, you have to pay $6. A bag is $10. Mounts are $20-40 (though there are mounts available in game for gold). To get the best enchants (which are completely, over-the-top overpowered), you also need to pay to increase your chances of the enchant working. It's a great game for what it is, but the quality is nowhere near WoW.

---------- Post added 2013-05-10 at 03:05 PM ----------



Doubtful. They will milk WoW for every last cent for as long as they can.

Thats sad to hear actually as I had considered looking into it. Champs also has a pay to respec thing going unless they change some power you have set, then they allow you a free respec to get rid of a nerfed power (assuming you are not f2p, then you are stuck with it because you are given your powers as you level, no alternative.).

[Kakokun]

Yes. Or advertising. Virtually all rely on microtransactions of some sort. There are two major types of F2P - free-to-play, in that money won't get you anything other than cosmetic/vanity stuff and your progress is still limited the same as everyone else and B2P (or P2P), buy/play-to-pay where you can purchase better gear or boosts that push you past other people who do not or can not afford it.

Ehm, what?

F2P (free to play) means that you can access the game without paying anything.
B2P (buy to play) means you can access the game after buying the box.
P2P (pay to play) is the subscription model where you have to pay constantly to have access.

Both F2P and B2P rely on microtransactions as their main source of income. Often F2P games will have parts of the game locked unless you buy them from the cash shop. They can both be varying degrees of pay to win games.

P2P on the other hand focuses more on a subscription as the main source of income with some having paid services (e.g. realm transfer in WoW).

[TirielWoW]

Thats sad to hear actually as I had considered looking into it. Champs also has a pay to respec thing going unless they change some power you have set, then they allow you a free respec to get rid of a nerfed power (assuming you are not f2p, then you are stuck with it because you are given your powers as you level, no alternative.).

Don't get me wrong - the game is definitely worth playing. But the quality isn't the same as WoW. It's entertaining and enjoyable for what it is. But I realized very quickly that I could not have the same expectations of the game as I had of things like Rift, SWTOR, and WoW. I would say download it and try it out, and I think you would enjoy yourself. It just isn't a substitute for WoW, for me.

[Hubbl3]

I cant wait to say "I told you so" to you and everyone else who (in denial) believes this way.

Yeah, in 5-10 years you could really say "I told you so". What a victory buddy, what a victory.

[DeadmanWalking]

Ehm, what?

F2P (free to play) means that you can access the game without paying anything.

F2P means that you can access minimal and basic amounts of game content without paying anything. Under this definition WoW is F2P, as you can download, access the game and play to level 20 without paying 1 red cent.

---------- Post added 2013-05-10 at 08:19 PM ----------

If I were to take a guess I would say that its more likely that you will still be paying a subsciption fee for wow but that subscription fee will give you access to Titan and Wow, basically you subscribe to Titan and get to play wow for free, or vise versa seeing as how you choose to look at it.

[Sunnydee]

Israel
8,012,400
March 31, 2013

WoW
8,300,000
May 8th, 2013

So, WoW has more players subscribed than the entire country of Isreals population, After 8 years. Yeah, I think WoW is going F2P as well -_-

I prob laughed harder then i should of >.<

[Kakokun]

F2P means that you can access minimal and basic amounts of game content without paying anything. Under this definition WoW is F2P, as you can download, access the game and play to level 20 without paying 1 red cent.

A game can be F2P without being locked down. So long as you can create an account and access it without buying the game first then it is F2P. And yes the first 20 levels of wow is F2P under this definition.

[Zaqwert]

World of Warcraft will NEVER BE free to play.

-> The reason you ask? Why would it change it's model that's worked for over 8.5 years.

Becaues nothing works forever? You can have a profitable business model for a long time and then the industry changes and you need to change with it or die.

Ask Blockbuster video about changing market dynamics.

MMO's go F2P when it's more profitable to do so.

WoW will remain subscription based as long as that's more profitable than F2P. If F2P every becomes a more lucrative style, that will be adopted.

[Azrile]

Can someone explain the F2P model to me? Do they rely on micro-transactions to make money? I have never played a F2P game before..

It would look like this.

$10 for vanity pets, maybe some cosmetic clothing etc
$1 for a potion of exp gain ( 3 times exp for 2 hours etc)
$5 for access to Thunder Island (and the new raid)
$50 for the next expansion.

Basically what Blizzard would do is keep things nearly the same, but add a $5-10 cost in order to access the portals that takes you to the newest patch content.

The costs above would be broken down into ´points´.. so you trade $ for points, and then use your points on the items you want. $10 is 1000 points, you pay 1000 points for a vanity pet. There would also be a subscription option available, same as now. The subscription would get you all the content as well as 200 points each month... in a way, when most games that go f2p, the subscribers end up being better off than they were before the switch because bonus points are usually part of the plan, which allows them to buy stuff from the cashshop. One of the real issues is customer support. Usually only subscribers, or those who have bought a certain number of points in the last month can access real customer support.

The problem with f2p and why Blizzard will never do it involves predictability. Blizzard can predict how much money they will be earning from WOW next december fairly accurately. In a f2p model, you never know how much you will earn, so can´t hire/fire with much accurracy. Your latest clothing item for the cash shop is a fail.. there goes a few developers. Some type of item works once, you hire a few guys.. the second time players don´t buy it... now what? From a business planning standpoint, f2p is a nightmare because your earning are so unpredictable.

[Pann]

That is the most flawed math I have seen in a long while.

First of all all the money they take in is not revenue, a lot of it is R&D in order to continue the franchise. Also many people pay on annual subscriptions not monthly. They also have to pay tax like any other business in the US, they have to pay for server cost and maintenance, employee checks, etc. You forgot to factor in base costs with expansions and such.

His math is flawed but only for the fact it is based on 8 million people all paying $15 when Blizzard only receive about $3 per account from China. You are talking about profit which is revenue less costs.

[mizeri]

they have 8mil subs, so no not anytime soon

[Jaylock]

They expect subscribers to be lower at the end of the year because they know they lost china because of a certain f2p game that was released there. Everyone knew that when Wow had 12M subscribers it was about 6M west 6M china. My guess is at the end of the year, it will be 5M west 2M china. There is no reason for those casual internet cafe players in china to pay for wow when they have a high quality f2p game that is sponsered in every cafe now. Wow is fine, their money is coming from the west anyway.

You are delusional to think that they have not lost subscriptions from people in North America and Europe.

---------- Post added 2013-05-10 at 08:36 PM ----------

Yeah, in 5-10 years you could really say "I told you so". What a victory buddy, what a victory.

Oh man, since you can see the future, and KNOW for a certain fact that they wont go free to play within the next 5 years, I guess I need to submit that I am completely wrong and it will never happen!

/sarcasm

[Seranthor]

Man Seranthor, you really are in denial arent you?

Just because WoW will go free to play, does not mean they will lose more money than they take in currently. You have no clue how finance and revenues work, so please stop spewing out garbage as if it is factual information.

Blizzard's own executives stated that by the end of this year, they EXPECT subscriptions to be lower than they are now. They are losing subs and they know it. They know the rate of decline, and a free to play model like star wars will probably be a great way for them to continue to increase revenues, while still allowing people who want to pay $15 a month to do so for unlimited access to everything they develop.

Seriously, people need to stop worshiping the ground Blizzard walks on... because that ground is thin ice in the middle of a lake, and if you continue to do so, you may just fall into a icy watery grave.

---------- Post added 2013-05-10 at 07:20 PM ----------



I cant wait to say "I told you so" to you and everyone else who (in denial) believes this way.

Wow Jaylock... I can fucking read... and oh shit... I can fucking listen... I have read the transcript several times... Guess what? he acknowledges the presence of F2P as competition... that doesn't mean they are contemplating it in the least... I am NOT saying they WONT, I'm saying that its currently more profitable for them NOT TO...

NOW... JAYLOCK... PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS... WORLD OF WARCRAFT WILL GO FREE TO PLAY WHEN BLIZZARD DEEMS ITS MORE PROFITABLE TO...

should you continue to have a problem with grasping the concept you really should... (no.. you of all people aren't worth the infraction).

[ShimmerSwirl]

Look at it this way, whats the point of continuing to pump tons of expensive resources into the game if millions are gonna quit anyway?

Blizz scale back its development and milk its playerbase for as long as they can, its really not a bad strategy.

[Sills]

Even if it dips to 5 million subs which would really get people on forums flipping out-

5 million x $15 a month = $75 million dollars every month!

I can see why that would make them want to go F2P... >_> $900 million a year from subs alone isnt really that much /sarcasm.

The games we see going F2P have sub numbers that are below 1 million a month. I really cant see that happening to WoW anytime soon.

[Seranthor]

Smug AND wrong lol.

ACTIVISION-BLIZZARD (the whole company) reported $1.3 billion in GAAP revenue for the first quarter.
So just like I said previously, you're wrong and your point was based on you being wrong. Your point is therefore pointless. I expect an apology. Not everyone is cut out to read plain-english financial statements.

http://files.shareholder.com/downloa...ss_release.pdf

Check it out

when dealing with you no one said that Blizzard made a specific amt of cash... you assumed it... and that assumption was your mistake... and the mistake you were called on... Thus you are not deserving of one, so you'll get an apology when hell freezes over......

[Deleted]

NOW... JAYLOCK... PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS... WORLD OF WARCRAFT WILL GO FREE TO PLAY WHEN BLIZZARD DEEMS ITS MORE PROFITABLE TO...

So u have said exactly the same as Jaylock, whats your point?

Its obvious Wow will eventually go F2P, its inevitable. Its only opinion as to what year from now itll actually happen. I personally think Blizzard will act as they alwasy have done and put cash before the players, and that means theyll hold out milking the subs gravytrain for as long as they can.

For the same reason i dont expect Blizzard to fix lowpop realms, theyll continue to charge as long as players continue to pay to use the xfer service.

Kotick is looking for ways to fill the revenue gap that 1.3mill subs (and counting) has left in the profits. He might even introduce another paid service to milk more dollars out of the current playerbase...

[Jaylock]

Wow Jaylock... I can fucking read... and oh shit... I can fucking listen... I have read the transcript several times... Guess what? he acknowledges the presence of F2P as competition... that doesn't mean they are contemplating it in the least... I am NOT saying they WONT, I'm saying that its currently more profitable for them NOT TO...

NOW... JAYLOCK... PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS... WORLD OF WARCRAFT WILL GO FREE TO PLAY WHEN BLIZZARD DEEMS ITS MORE PROFITABLE TO...

should you continue to have a problem with grasping the concept you really should... (no.. you of all people aren't worth the infraction).

Settle down bro, stop getting mad over a game. No need for the caps.

How can you know the thoughts of Blizzard? "that doesn't mean they are contemplating it in the least"? really? you dont think it has crossed their mind on how to increase revenues by bringing more players into the game via a free subscription model? You seriously dont think they explore ALL avenues to increase profits on their cash cow? Your denial is getting ridiculous now.