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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Free to Play Option Coming This Fall
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
EA and BioWare have announced that a new free to play option will be added to Star Wars: The Old Republic beginning this fall. New and returning players will be able to play all eight character classes and progress to level 50 with some restrictions.
According to information released today, players will be able to purchase content and features that are available to subscribers.
In preparation for the move to add the F2P option, the box price for SWTOR will be reduced to $14.99 and will come with a free month's subscription.
Current subscribers will be gifted "Cartel Coins" that can be used to purchase special items. Former subscribers who renew their plans will also receive some incentives for doing so.
Find out more on the new free to play teaser site on the Star Wars: The Old Republic main site. Also be sure to check out Bill Murphy's interview with Jeff Hickman and Matthew Bromberg!
Comments
first...
I do wonder how many subscribers they've lost to have to switch to this model so quickly.
Wow. Really? I hate you. :P
Seriously, dude?!?
Queue Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and watch the fires burn.........
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Enough to learn that subscriptions (exclusively) are going the way of the dinosaur. They should have set up the game this way originally. Better late than never!
called it. the boring republic has flopped as expected. cookies please.
I tend to agree with you that they should have set it up that way from the start. An IP like Star Wars seems like it'd be full of opportunities to monitize small cash transactions.
But then they wouldn't have gotten 60$ a pop from 2.5 million people. Of course if you meant 60$ with no sub then, that would have been a better idea for them, I think. They wouldn't have gotten nearly as much flack as they did. If they would have made a game with more than 2 months of content (for a relatively slow player like myself) then they could have gotten even more money.
It is with phenomenal, cosmic-level self-control that I didn't simply write a post filled with laughter (I'll just let Iori do that for me). I am impressed, I didn't think I could do it.
But damn, that's hilarious. Not because it's going F2P, mind you; I think that's an excellant choice and will drastically increase this game's population and profit, which it needs and will benefit from. But because of all the people that swore up and down it would never happen.
Oh, I am tickled so.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Nice, I've been wanting to play lately but haven't because of sub. I It's not just this though, I haven't wanted to play any game with a sub. I juse hope they don't totally gut the ftp version like some games do.
I think ultimately either way would have worked. B2P with a shop/sub option would have worked for this particular game, sure. Selling boxes clearly wasn't an issue.
Only goes to prove my current theory about the current developer mindset:
if they add pay to play for 2 days dungeons etc they are going to fail badly.
If they dont add permanent content purchase im not touching this game again.
Of course fps issues has to be fixed.
Hopefully the massive unmitigated failure that this game has become will send a resounding message to anyone else thinking about making another terrible clone game with an IP stamped on it.
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I doubt TSW will take more than 6 months to go F2P. The kind of content in that game that people REALLY like isn't the kind of easy-to-make crap that we see regurgitated nonstop in other mmos, the grindy quests and the endless gear/dungeon grind. It's the storyline and the investigative quests that make it interesting, and I promise you they won't be able to keep up with the demands of players for more of it, for very long. People will start bitching they're out of content (if they haven't already), they'll start leaving, then whoosh...f2p. Just like SWToR
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
I got my moneys worth (played the free month, I compare the money I payed to what you pay to go out to drink or to the movies etc..)...It was not worth the sub.....That said, if it was worth the sub, I would of been more than happy to pay it. I actually prefer paying a sub, with no cash shop, but that is the real dinosaur...So if it has to have one, i'll take a sub with cosmetic only cash shop.
As long as something isn't p2w, I don't hate on it though.
omg...14.99 for the box?? ROFLMAO that was quick!
And the pressure keeps mounting for the sub MMOs out there...
Perhaps now it's time to buy a key on eBay (to claim my pre-order goodies), play a month and then wait till November ;-)
[mod edit - it doesn't. don't feed the trolls.]
Lol, I am proud to say that I completely predicted this 1-3 months before the games release saying that 6-18 months after release the game would go F2P. This was what their plan was in the beginning I am sure!!
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Deflection.
Hehe
Anyone remembers my predictions ?
It turned even worse. At least I thought they are going to have one expansion before going F2P
Never played SWTOR yet, I'm going to give it a go tonight and see for myself how good it is or isn't.