When will WoW go F2P?

[Airwaves]

It'll go buy2win with the next expansion pack, announced at Blizzcon this year.

Screenshot this post for when it happens.

You really believe they would go F2P with so many subs? HA. EVERY SINGLE f2p game if given the choice to be F2P or have 8 Millions subs they would pick the subs.

Oh wait B2W... because a few over priced helms are how you win at wow.

[Sigmar]

You really believe they would go F2P with so many subs? HA. EVERY SINGLE f2p game if given the choice to be F2P or have 8 Millions subs they would pick the subs.

Oh wait B2W... because a few over priced helms are how you win at wow.

You're really naive if you think Blizzard won't jump on the f2p/b2w bandwagon at the earliest opportunity. If this thing with the transmog helms has proven anything it's that the WoW fanbase is perfectly willing to turn a blind, ignorant eye toward every way Blizzard tries to screw them. Face reality, buy2win is in WoW's immediate future.

Edit: Games with a cash shop easily see more proportional income than p2p games. Just because WoW has 8 million players (probably more like 5 million since the last financial report) doesn't mean buy2win wouldn't bring in less profit. If anything it would triple because morons are quick to buy hundreds of dollars worth of useless cash shop trash every month.

[Durandro]

You really believe they would go F2P with so many subs? HA. EVERY SINGLE f2p game if given the choice to be F2P or have 8 Millions subs they would pick the subs.

Oh wait B2W... because a few over priced helms are how you win at wow.

Yep and yep. Most F2P games started with subscriptions, struggled to make ends meet, and went F2P out of necessity. Newer games are cottoning on and are F2P from launch because they've seen so many previous MMO's fail.

And the complaining about the helmet is hilarious. As my guild's Warrior tank said: "Its 15 minutes work, what's the big deal?" Of course not everyone can afford it, and not everyone wants to look like an unfortunate incident between a lady's legs, but if you can afford it and want it then no-one should really get angry about it. Its like getting angry at someone for driving a car with optional extras.

[Airwaves]

cut

For someone who thinks they are so smart you really missed the point there.

[shise]

Hey guys... So I just read the front page that transmog items will now be in the blizzard store.. Why are blizzard only making the items available on the store and not by playing? This really reminds me of the RIFT item shop.. So do you guys think blizzard is slowly going towards the F2P model? Imo they will, as they will gain massive amounts of players if they do..

Obviously no. They are simply clever, they have a sub based game where they can also add useless items to the shop because there are... persons up to pay for it.

[Deleted]

Next expansion. (a) They are gearing up for it now with the implementation of the in game cash shop and (b) F2P cash shop models are more profitable.

Blizzard's "top business analysts" blamed the sub losses on the F2P market and how they can't compete. Every man and his dog know that the sub loss reasons are because of the current accessibility of end game. Can finish the retarded game in less than a fucking week.

[Count Zero]

Next expansion. (a) They are gearing up for it now with the implementation of the in game cash shop and (b) F2P cash shop models are more profitable.

Blizzard's "top business analysts" blamed the sub losses on the F2P market and how they can't compete. Every man and his dog know that the sub loss reasons are because of the current accessibility of end game. Can finish the retarded game in less than a fucking week.

A week ? According to your sig it took your guild 2 months to kill Ra-den. World first Ra-den took about a month. Less than 2% of raiding guilds in the West have killed Ra-den. How is 2% "accessible" ?

Why didn't massive sub losses hit in Wrath, which was more accessible than BC ? Why did big sub losses start in early Cata, which was less accessible than Wrath ?

[Pann]

You really believe they would go F2P with so many subs? HA. EVERY SINGLE f2p game if given the choice to be F2P or have 8 Millions subs they would pick the subs.

Oh wait B2W... because a few over priced helms are how you win at wow.

If subscriber losses continue at the present rate and there is a danger without Blizzard addressing the terrible catch up mechanism that they will only increase once players have cleared SoO it is not unthinkable that the Western population could be approaching the 1 million mark by the time the next expansion is released. I really would not be surprised if WOW went B2P once the initial rush of resubscribers has died down after the next expansion launch.

[Galaddriel]

Before year's end it will be a hybrid game depending on what region you are in and what plan you choose (ftp + sub in KR, ftp in China, b2p and sub in the west)

[Orlong]

Hopefully never. F2P sucks because it brings lots of trolls and little kids who dont have credit cards, and make F2P games miserable. When youre not paying for something youre much more likely to not care if you get banned since you can just make another free account so people act much worse in F2P games since there is no accountablility for actions

[blackhammer99]

Can finish the retarded game in less than a fucking week.

12k achievement points and 519 ilvl is not "finished."

Game won't be going f2p any time soon, not considering they can keep double dipping off both.
Subs don't really matter.
People who are serious about the game keep playing.
The few "million" who quit are the casuals who never did anything at end game.
Less than a thousand serious players quit a quarter, and the game will keep going as long as those players keep raiding, pvping, streaming, and getting achievements.

[Darksoldierr]

In this very moment :O

[Deleted]

Soon™ (Copyright 2004-2013 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved)

Joke aside, not before subs fall lower than a million I think

[Demoncrash]

I doubt they'll wait till the sub numbers drop to as low as 500k or 1 mil to go F2P. They'll do it way before it reaches that point.

I also see them going with the buy to play model used by Guild Wars series rather than free to play one.

[Notos]

They would probably have to dip below 1-2 million subscribers for f2p to become more profitable than subs.

[ItachiZaku]

Not for a really long time, and when it does... no one will care.

[Topcraft]

The current model is generating €100 million a month, that's over a billion a year.
Going F2P now would not make sense in any sort of model.

[Deleted]

When the current system is no longer profitable for them.

I don't understand how anyone thinks it's anything other than this.

They're a business, if they think that a f2p model will give them more money than a subscription model, they'll do it. If they think that it won't, they'll keep the subscription model.

[Deleted]

Why didn't massive sub losses hit in Wrath, which was more accessible than BC ? Why did big sub losses start in early Cata, which was less accessible than Wrath ?

Because Cata was bad. Not much to do with accessibility. Cata went from inaccessible raiding in early t11 to easiest raiding ever in late t13 and it bled subs right though.

[Aventhos]

Hopefully, never..
Realistic, when below 500.000 subs..

Going to have to agree....it will be a long time before F2P, least another 3xpacs