Well, its free to play now.

[Squeezus]

I'm also seeing a bunch of people say "Yay, I can try it out now." No, you can't, at least not any more than you can currently. You still have to buy the game, so unless your "trying it out" consists of needing to play for several months, it being F2P isn't going to help you try it out any more.

[Maleagant]

Starting this fall, there will be two different ways to play Star Wars: The Old Republic:
http://www.swtor.com/free/features
Subscription – A service designed for players who want unrestricted access to all the game features via ongoing subscription or by redeeming a Game Time Card. In addition to gaining access to all game content as our current subscribers do now, Subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins**, the new virtual currency that will be introduced later this fall. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the game play experience.
Free-to-Play –The first 50 levels will be free-to-play, with some restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be “unlocked” with Cartel Coins.

Story Content FULL ACCESS
Character Creation Choices LIMITED ACCESS
Warzones LIMITED ACCESS
Flashpoints LIMITED ACCESS
Space Missions LIMITED ACCESS
Operations NO ACCESS
Travel Features LIMITED ACCESS
Galactic Trade Network EXTREMELY LIMITED ACCESS


It's great you can still experience the story content for free but just not enough to bring me back.Sorry Bioware.I think they will do better with this model however.

[RoninaThorstone]

Good, I'm looking forward to this. I don't see why people are treating this as a bad thing. Then again, I don't raid, so as long as I can level and maybe do warzones, I won't have any need for the extra services.

This.

Lower entry barrier allows more people to experience swtor. People who would not have played at all will drop a few dollars here and there. People who enjoy swtor a lot will remain subscribed (except for the "gated community people") and continue on as if nothing happened. Except something will have happened, the population will have increased and it will be a net gain money wise.

Its how free to play works.

[Kellytm3]

I'm almost 40 and as a person who grew up on Star Wars I hate to see the game fail like it did. TOR had the best MMO launch,but it also earns the title of greatest MMO failure. After all,this is Star Wars,not super heroes,or Star Trek or Warhammer. BW got a black eye from DA2,but with what has happened to TOR,they get more than a black eye. I really thought this game could at least be the 2nd best MMO on the market (as far as $15 sub fee goes ) but I guess Rift gets the honor of 2nd best and of course King WoW will forever be the ruler.

[Deleted]

Damn just reading the official forums, there's loads of upset customers.

[Jaronicity]

I think this is a good thing. People who paid the subscription will have little to no effect of this, and this will get a lot of new players to join.

Agreed. I'm gonna keep playing because I want to keep doing ops and FPs and WZs whenever I want and not be limited by the # I can do a week. Also, subscribers get 150 of those cartel coins for each month they've been subbed prior to July 31! I want myself a Darth Nihilus mask! And this gives me the option to continue playing the game even after it completely loses its luster. I don't see that as a problem at all. Terror from Beyond looks pretty damn cool.

Also, please stop the attitude of F2P=failure. It does my head in. This gives people an option to do what they want. Pretty much what hk-51 up there said.

[WarFalcon1]

I do. All my friends do. You can, too. :P

It's not quite as bad as a failure, but anything that fails to live up to expectations, failed.

All opinion. I would say Cata was a worse failure.

[Crispy]

The same will happen to Guild Wars.
Then I can finally have the last laugh.

What?
Guild wars never had a subscription fee to begin with, you buy the game and that's it. Guild wars 2 will run on the same principle, but with more micro transactions.

as for SWTOR going f2p, it was obviously coming. While i doubt it will revive the game, it will at the very least let more people see the story up to 50 (which was, even if the game was disappointing, pretty damn awesome to play trough.)

[endersblade]

So, when is this supposed to take place? I still can't log in using my account.

[Edge-]

This ~is~ fully F2P? You've played F2P games before, yes? This's usually how they work. Baseline free to a certain level, pay for extra content and vanity/cosmetic upgrades. Solid model.

No, truly F2P is what NCsoft did with Aion/Lineage 2, and what Nexon has done with Vindictus. There is NO gated content at all. You get access to 100% of the content for free. This is freemium. It's a F2P player friendly freemium, but it's still freemium.

[Reaperr]

I do. All my friends do. You can, too. :P

It's not quite as bad as a failure, but anything that fails to live up to expectations, failed.

I'll actually agree with the cata one :-D :P

[Thage]

Yeah because giving players the option to not pay will make players go away. If anything it will attract more players.

Freemium MMOs actually tend to do pretty well for just this reason. You give players a reasonable amount of content right out of the metaphorical box, and let them buy what content they want at endgame--it usually ends up pulling in a nice profit if 1/3 of your player base is buying a lot of cool cosmetic stuff, 1/2 is buying exp boosts and stat boosts that last an hour or two, and a small community of raiders are buying your raid content. There's a reason most MMOs that hit the shelves, that aren't AAA titles or run by big-name devs (and even some that are) are freemium. Less development overhead, smaller teams (generally), and no reliance on subscription fees usually means you don't have pressure to release endgame content on a large scale and in rapid succession--releasing 2-3 new content packs every few months on the cash shop usually covers anything you'd lose with the free-to-play portion of your player base getting a free ride.

[MKing]

cash/in-game currency shop for cosmetic items.

Fixed that for you.
Also you get the boosts and stuff anyways just for completeing personal storyline, also you get other cash shop items just for exploring the world. There will be constant and free updates.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...tiated-READ-ME!

Please do some research before you spout nonsense and look like an idiot.

[Squeezus]

Cataclysm failed to live up to my expectations. Can I say it failed too?

It's not about your expectations. When it comes to making some money, SWToR is not a failure, as you have pointed out. When it comes to coming even close to expectations, it has failed. That doesn't mean you should like your game any less. You see this type of thing in the movie industry all of the time, a movie gets insanely hyped, it comes out, and doesn't do particularly well. Does it make money? yes. Are there people that like it? yes. That doesn't mean that they reach anything close to their goals though.

[willowe]

All opinion. I would say Cata was a worse failure.

Blizzard didn't do 2 rounds of layoffs (to their developer dept), or be forced to convert to f2p due to it.

It's a failure. Just lightly less than SWTOR.

[Zetno]

SWTOR made the mistake of looking at World of Warcraft and saying 'we can do that', when instead developers should be looking at games like Rift, LOTRO and Aion to see how to create a sustainable game with its own niche community these days. With this announcement coming after just 7 months of being out, it's hard to call a game that had this much financial backing anything other than a failure.

[Deleted]

They wouldn't even release the numbers in today's quarterly call.

Quotes from the Call:
"Disappointing Results of SWTOR offset by Battlefield 3"....the game's been a massive disappointment hasn't it.

[Anjerith]

Just because you didn't like Cata doesn't mean it failed, in fact I think it is even profitable at the moment isn't it? Yep, still turning greenbacks.

[Thage]

Fixed that for you.
Also you get the boosts and stuff anyways just for completeing personal storyline, also you get other cash shop items just for exploring the world. There will be constant and free updates.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...tiated-READ-ME!

Please do some research before you spout nonsense and look like an idiot.

I was throwing an example out there, based on my knowledge of how most freemium MMOs work. Thanks for the correction--I'm not in the Guild Wars Beta nor do I frequent those forums here.

That being said, the snark and flaming is really uncalled for, yanno?

[WarFalcon1]

Blizzard didn't do 2 rounds of layoffs (to their developer dept), or be forced to convert to f2p due to it.

It's a failure. Just lightly less than SWTOR.

Please show me where they were forced to do anything. They are changing payment models in the hopes of making more money. Thats not forcing anything, thats a sound business decision.

As stated they have made their money back on this game. All the rest is gravy.