Star Wars: The Old Republic May Go Free-To-Play
The BioWare team is looking into injecting Star Wars: The Old Republic with a free-to-play model.
It should come as no surprise that EA and BioWare are looking to add a free-to-play model into Star Wars: The Old Republic. Despite its success at launch, the MMOG shed 25-percent of its player base between February and the end of March: down from 1.7 million subscribers to 1.3 million. One report even suggested that an average of 334 people were on each server as of May.
To get players interested in the MMOG again, EA and BioWare may introduce a free-to-play model, allowing fans to play within the Star Wars universe without a subscription, and purchase virtual items when they choose. Other competing MMOGs have already moved to this scheme -- EverQuest and EverQuest 2, Dungeons & Dragons Online, etc -- and apparently it works.
In an interveiw with lead designer Emmanuel Lusinchi (that seems to have been pulled as of this writing), Lusinchi admitted that the publisher is looking into adding a free-to-play mode. "Free-to-play games wouldn't be competitors if they weren't any good, but "there are definitely good games out there and good games coming out, so of course all of this competition impacts your plan with what you want to do," he said.
"The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well" he added. "Unless people are happy with what they have, they are constantly demanding updates, new modes and situations. So we are looking at free-to-play but I can't tell you in much detail. We have to be flexible and adapt to what is going on."
EA and BioWare may need to do something quick in order to keep The Old Republic out of the red. Funcom is launching its subscription-based supernatural MMOG The Secret World nest week. ArenaNet's long-awaited subscription-free Guild Wars 2 and Blizzard's World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria is also slated to arrive sometime in 2012.
EXACTLY!!! Nailed it on the head.
"So we are looking at free-to-play"
Apparently you really don't get it. Becoming free-to-play does not create content. Create quality content, and people will play. Free-to-play will get them to try, but they aren't gonna stay without content.
Not to mention all the good studios EA purchased, ran into the ground, and killed off like Pandemic, Origin, Westwood, etc...
EXACTLY!!! Nailed it on the head.
"So we are looking at free-to-play"
Apparently you really don't get it. Becoming free-to-play does not create content. Create quality content, and people will play. Free-to-play will get them to try, but they aren't gonna stay without content.
400K Mass Effect 3 players are not happy with the single player
I disagree. I won't pay for an MMO, I don't have enough time to play one, but if it's FTP, I'll play it and there will be more than enough content for me.
that will be bad for gaming in general and for studios who needs money to make their big games. Publishers are in a middle of a transition trying out new things to gain money in this difficult economy. and gaming in general is going thru a transition too.
the extra credits show is a real eye opener you should check it out.
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits
Lol yea ok.
The use to be good studios are now trash thanks to EA, Bioware, DICE, etc. All trash now.
i think you have a point, but making the game free-to-play makes it easier for people on the fence to pick it up and end up paying for stuff in other ways. i have no real interest in this game but my one friend says its really great. i have no intention of paying for the game, but if it beomces free-to-play there's a much greater chance i'll start playing and then maybe ill buy something in game later on which is money bioware wouldn't have seen otherwise.
Not to mention all the good studios EA purchased, ran into the ground, and killed off like Pandemic, Origin, Westwood, etc...
SW has a ton of content, and quite frankly is one of the most polished (at launch) MMO's I've ever laid my hands on. They did a good job, but couldn't keep up with their customers who eat content at a ridiculously fast pace.
I think succeeding in the MMO market is much harder now than back when AC, EQ, WoW made their debuts, the gamer has changed, they expect more content, and they fly through content much faster than they used to.
It also doesn't help that most MMO's today are made to be super easy, you used to have to work to get the high content stuff done, it would take multiple, many attempts to kill a boss. Now all the developers do is bow to the forum spam of crying gamers citing that the content is too hard.
The challenge is gone because the have to appeal to the crying masses, then the content runs dry because people can get to the end without having to putting effort (and time) into getting through the content.
That's my rant, summary:
1. People whine
2. Content is made easier
3. Everyone flies through easier content
4. People whine because there's not enough content
5. Developer screws them self over in a vicious cycle, they can't keep up with new content demands, they lose subscribers.
^This
And yes casuals want the content to be easy and accessible, and yes casuals get bored much faster than the hardcore. But if you want all that $$ than you got to play by those rules.
SWOTR had a great leveling experience, but the end game was inferior, outdated version fo what WoW had.
I'm at least looking forward to the fan made KOTOR III using the KOTOR II framework to build it. From what I have seen it looks pretty good and has some voice actors. Hopefully this will get finished.
I'll go tell CCP that, oh wait....
Appeal is the problem. KOTOR 1 & 2 vs. TOR
KOTOR: You are Revan Sith Lord, redeemed Jedi Master who saves whole Republic... etc. = Super Awesome
KOTOR 2: You are the Jedi Exile, commited genocide and won the Mandolrian War... etc. = Awesome
TOR: You are a generic jedi/sith/bounty hunter/soldier who fights a cold war as a little pawn = Meh
The subscription model doesn't help. P2P subscription means people want to grind through the game asap to save money from having to subscribe again. That means 8 hour gaming days. To stop this, devs need to make more grinding. More grinding = less epicness. I would rather have HQ content with tons of epicness that I can play whenever I want without the pressure of "I got to finish the game before the next monh to avoid the sub fee".
You are certainly not a generic jedi or sith.
Funny, because a lot of the really great games have been backed by EA. Ultima Online, Command and Conquer series, Sim City series, The Sims series, Medal of Honor, Battlefield Series, Crysis series, MASS EFFECT TRILOGY!!!, and Deadspace just to name a few good ones.
Battlefield has been some of the best online gameplay of all time, it's pretty legendary, and BF3 is amazing, especially the new CQ content.
You haters need to stop ragging on EA.