Predict the year WoW will become free-to-play

[Seratox]

FFXI is still not f2p.

So never.

[Jester Joe]

My favorite part is how threads like this always have to start off with veiled insults at people for daring to still enjoy WoW.

Claiming something is "foolish" doesn't make you right. WoW is more likely to not go F2P at all than anything.

[Laerrus]

Technically it is already F2P and P2W because of WoW token.

[cuafpr]

Never - and the closest it will ever come is being part of the gamepass sub from MS, maybe a gamepass+ that includes wow and the other stuff.

[Ielenia]

It's foolish to believe WoW will remain a subbed game forever, considering how much money companies make from having their games go free-to-play.

You know why those companies make "so much money" despite being "free to play", right?

With the Microsoft acquisition, we could see WoW go free to play even next year, with seasonal bundles and more micotransactions.

I don't care for WoW's microtransactions, because they don't impact me one iota. But now you want Blizzard to start releasing new playable races and classes into the cash shop instead of giving those for free? You want Blizzard to lock access to certain dungeons and raids or even zones to the cash shop? Imagine having to buy a "Halls of Atonement mythic access" from the cash shop before you're able to do mythic HoA, much like you had to buy heroic keys from quartermasters back in TBC because without them you couldn't do the heroic version of the dungeons?

Fuck.
That.
Shit.

I personally believe it will go free to play a year after the microsoft acquisiton (2024)

I hope it never happens.

[Kumorii]

2032 because of a feeling.

[kranur]

It's foolish to believe WoW will remain a subbed game forever, considering how much money companies make from having their games go free-to-play.

What's foolish to believe is that WoW will go f2p just because. Even with 4 million people, which it probably still has, it makes around 60 million per month from subs alone, and they also have a cash shop on top of that. And an extra 300+ million every 2 years when they release a new expansion.

Best case scenario for it to go anywhere remotely close to f2p is to be included in the microsoft pass, but there is little reason to do that.

Eventually it might go f2p, but that won't happen until profits drop significantly, or otherwise said, when it's close to being dead.
They can also just create more mobile titles within their franchises to take people's money away, which they already started doing, like they did with DI and the upcoming Warcraft game. There's just no way that they will drop a guaranteed thing and risk having it backfire.

[Aydinx2]

WoW is one of the few games that can still get away with a subscription fee, so I think never. Especially when paired with the fact that people pay for an expansion too.

[Mendzia]

2023 WoW will be announced (for 2024) as part of MS game pass... just after DF will be here for a 2-3 months and people start realising it is again same shit like last 3-4 xpacks.

[ablib]

Another pointless MMO-C thread/poll.

Where's the never option? The merger with Microsoft kind of guarantees it will never be free to play. Once the current financial model no longer becomes feasible, it will roll into the game pass.

[Lolites]

It's foolish to believe WoW will remain a subbed game forever, considering how much money companies make from having their games go free-to-play. Despite that, WoW has a loyal and addicted group of fanbase that will never quit no matter what (probably over 500,000 of people like this) which could sustain subs for another decade.

With the Microsoft acquisition, we could see WoW go free to play even next year, with seasonal bundles and more micotransactions.

I personally believe it will go free to play a year after the microsoft acquisiton (2024), as microsoft will likely have it on gamepass and will see no real reason to keep it subbed.

it MIGHT get buy2play in next few years, though even thats unlikely, but f2p? IF EVER then not for few expansions, so 2030 at earliest

- - - Updated - - -

OT: The game is already F2P up to level 20, I could see them extending that up to the start of the current expansion, but I doubt it would go further than that.

they could go with 1. f2p "vanila" zones, 2. sub to old expansions (and classic realms) 3. box price for current expansion (on top of sub obviously)

[Mojo03]

Probably never, because they got their player base so conditioned to paying it.

It's obstensibly a lot of free income they get away with because subs are so normalized with MMO's.

[facefist]

Also, the king of all MMOs going F2P but would be a blow to Blizzard's ego. They already stopped reporting sub numbers and have to contort bizzare metrics to make WoW look good.

News flash for people that don't understand how large listed businesses work: they don't make decisions based on if it hurts their "ego" or not.

[Bwgmon]

It's foolish to believe WoW will remain a subbed game forever,

I mean...

as microsoft will likely have it on gamepass and will see no real reason to keep it subbed.

I wouldn't be surprised if they let Game Pass subscribers access WoW, but that's not the same as going F2P.

[hulkgor]

Not any time soon. But if you twist my arm, hmmm, 2036.

[Osmeric]

When will it go P2W?

[Cæli]

most likely never. they will probably stop releasing content way way before it has a chance to go f2p.

[Sluvs]

Well, realistically speaking, they just increased their team by a whopping 100 people. That is a lot.

Now, that by itself does not mean a lot. The only thing that it unequivcally means is that they are ramping up content production, so I don't see them dropping the expansion model anytime soon. I can see them dropping the sub model though, I still think its unlikely it just brings so much money that I can't see it happening in the near future (it is one of their biggest franchises by their own admission).

So while I do believe it is possible for them to become F2P, I imagine it would be something like GW2. Meaning you can play for free the expansions that you have but you have to pay for the new expansions that will come. Becoming 100% F2P though? Yeah, I almost certain that will not happen.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

It's foolish to believe WoW will remain a subbed game forever, considering how much money companies make from having their games go free-to-play. Despite that, WoW has a loyal and addicted group of fanbase that will never quit no matter what (probably over 500,000 of people like this) which could sustain subs for another decade.

With the Microsoft acquisition, we could see WoW go free to play even next year, with seasonal bundles and more micotransactions.

I personally believe it will go free to play a year after the microsoft acquisiton (2024), as microsoft will likely have it on gamepass and will see no real reason to keep it subbed.

It's not going to.

[Trend]

With the Microsoft acquisition, we could see WoW go free to play even next year, with seasonal bundles and more micotransactions.

A) It's possible that the people at MS are total fools and they'll gut one of the most significant revenue steams of the thing they just bought, but doesn't seem likely to me.

B) You have 8 options and you neglect to have "never" as one of the choices? LOL? It's certainly possible the sub will remain until the game is shut down.