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...
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.
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...