The Old Republic Considering Free-to-Play Model

[Shawn Zipay]

In a recent interview with Gamestm, the lead designer on Star Wars: The Old Republic says that the free-to-play model is something they're certainly keeping an eye on for the under-performing MMORPG.

“I think it’s more than the free-to-play model – it’s more that there is a lot of competitive offers,” suggests Lusinchi. “If it was just free-to-play games and they weren’t very good it wouldn’t even be a question 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.”

“The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well,” he says. “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.”

The numbers of SWTOR have fallen off drastically since it launched, so a free-to-play model might be coming to the game sooner than anybody would have expected. I know for a fact that at that price, I'd make a return to playing the game. Just saying.

(via)

[SgtMattBaker]

Never tried it, I'm looking forward to the "Free-to-Play up to level 15" though.

[jimykx]

Re: The Old Republic Considering Free-to-Play Model

Yeah, the usual "We have a nice trial/demo for people to play! But were gonna call the game free-to-play because it attracts more people!"

[DunkinSPE]

Translation: Bioware isn't cranking updates out fast enough to satisfy some of their player base.

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: The Old Republic Considering Free-to-Play Model

Translation: Bioware isn't cranking updates out fast enough to satisfy some of their player base.

Most of the player base. I played it for a while but it was just a typical MMO experience. It offered up virtually nothing new aside from the space combat but even that stuff was just an on rails shooter. The locations were bland and uninteresting. The story was so-so. The only real redeeming factor was the acting and voice work.

It's not a matter of them cranking out new content left and right, it's just a matter of them not really having an MMO that could retain people for any more than two months.