No free to play is not a good model to resort to, unless that is how the game starts out like say, Marvel Heroes. But when another game such as a mmorpg starts out as a subscription and then goes free to play it's because it's struggling. WoW is in no way struggling. Tons of players leave WoW to try other games, but I'd gues 90% come back within a year. It's a classic and still very much a currently active game without as some mmorpgs have, any major issues.
Maybe not this year, but if subs keep dropping that rapidly they will have no choice but to consider it. I can hardly see many new players starting with WoW at this point, and most old schoolers will get bored very quickly.
Nothing wrong with the F2P model trough, don't understand why people hate it so much...
Blindingly defending Blizzard; ignorantly trashing Blizzard. Both require an emotional investment that I'm unwilling to give. I'll take reason, logic, facts, and the willingness to accept that I may be wrong. At the end of the day I'll have nothing to account for and I may even have learned something.
Personally? I think they'd lose the profit if they switched right NOW.
If they made the switch when subscribers are around 2 million, then it'd be a smart choice.
The whole thing is that a large number of people wouldn't do the new subscription model and simply do the free to play way.
In the subscription model you'd imagine things like full access to raids, BGs, PVP, etc, but not everyone does those things, and a large number of them would just stick to playing the game for free.
Should WoW go free to play? No...at least not yet.
The game is still too successful to take that option into consideration, and by successful I mean subscriber wise. Numbers speaks for itself. When the time comes, then we'll see if Blizzard decides to cut us a break. It may not be soon and it may not be within the next few years, but that time will come eventually.
The problem is you are not taking into account that subs are currently falling at a rapid rate and there have been no gains in sub numbers, apart from short lived spikes, since 2008. In order to maintain profitability they have to do something to reverse the sub losses it is clear that the content being released is not only failing to attract new customers but is, also, failing to hold on the existing players thus it is logical that the next step would be to look at the current pricing model.
If rumours are to be believed SWTOR had roughly 350k subs prior to switching to F2P it now has just under 500k whilst there is no guarantee that WOW would see similar gains it is certainly food for thought.
WOW has the capacity to deal with far more players than it currently has so what does it matter if a large number of players play for free? The key is that not all of them will and even if a player only purchases services for $3 or $4 per month that is $3 or $4 that Blizzard did not previously have when you take in account about the numbers that WOW could attract if it went F2P you are potentially looking at several million in additional income per month.
Thank you this is the point I keep making but it seems to fall on deaf ears.
Sorry but the entire discusion is a insult towards not just Blizzard but other game developers.
Most (if not all) would sell their kidney to be in a similar position as Blizzard, even if the subs drops below 2m every other developer would still want to have WoW.
Every other MMO that was forced to go to f2p only did when the number of subs where so low (below 500k) that they had no choice to go f2p because otherwise the game would be dead. WoW with it's worldwide 8M players has such a strong position that it will take at least 2 years before Blizzard has to consider going to f2p.
What Blizzard actually should be aiming is to get new generation of players for the next expansion. Get the Warcraft movie out, make some new commercials, bundle the entire WoW expansions (including MoP) to a single pack so the games become less intimidating. At this point it isn't about quality or the game being to easy/hard, its about having a game that is 9 years old and that is bleeding subs because old players for whatever reason aren't returning anymore.
Can it? Yes
Will it anytime soon? No
We're all newbs, some are just more newbier than others.
Just a burned out hardcore raider turned casual.
I'm tired. So very tired. Can I just lay my head on your lap and fall asleep?
#TeamFuckEverything
no absolutely not!
They would lose a crap load of money going freeplay, i don't think they'll risk that. Unless however - they are deciding to add a new game, in which they'll most probably shift resources into the new game and still get a lot of traffic coming onto WoW to promote the new game. But that is a big look behind why they would possibly go freeplay.
Well if someone had been playing since the beginning...
$15 a month, x12 months = $180 a year
It's been out for over 8 years, so $180 x8 years = $1,440
And that's JUST for the monthly subscription. Add on to that all the costs of all the expansions, plus any kind of pets/mounts bought in the Blizz store, plus any character transfer or faction change, and yea it could be a couple thousand...
No, it shouldn't. Definitely not.