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So how long till WoW adopts a F2P model?
Enok4Twunni
Member Posts: 207
I just started playing Aion again because it went F2P. Made me wonder when and if WoW will ever go that route. Thoughts?
Comments
Doubt anytime soon, they still have an extremely large subscriber base but if they were to go f2p...oh boy, I can see 100s of other f2p titles shutting down and the whole MMO landscape getting a big shake.
Not until Titan comes out i guess.
Also, they had 1mil Annual Passes made, so i read. Its quite a commitment from a shitload of people, enough to keep the game running with subs for a long time.
Probably never. They make so much money it's stupid. Even if their subs fall below 5 mil, hell that is a rediculous amount of money they are making. if over the pass 6 years the game has been out, it cost over 300 mil to maintain(including paying employees and maintinance, with cost dropping for parts and servers it won't be that big of an increase in cost maybe 400-500mil including developement and maybe 200mil-ish in marketing) if their peek was 13mil+ subs for 5 of those years with subsequent 10-12mil subs for the fallowing years, my math maybe off but I'm calculating about a 1.5 billion dollars + with box sales for expansions. If they go f2p it will be for sh*ts and giggles.
Never, they will suck every penny out of the franchise even after Titan is released.
Grim Dawn, the next great action rpg!
http://www.grimdawn.com/
How long until Ultima Online goes free to play?
I was actually thinking about this just yesterday. I think it's conceivable that they'll go F2P once Titan is released, but keep things like speciality mounts and server transfer fees (which if anyone wants to complain about something, would be complaining about them - $25 to move some code my ass).
Those fees for transferring aren't high because they want money but to deter people from switching servers anytime they do something stupid and a lot of people end up hating them. People still complain about the price of authenticators which also they make no money from and hell I didn't even pay for mine, you can get a free app.
Also, Blizzard is expanding its market.
They just Released WoW here in Brasil, with local prices (30 BRL for the starter pack, 14,99 BRL the sub but you can get a promotion for 12,99 BRL/month, fyi 1 BRL = 1,9 USD +-). So... WoW is one of the cheapest here and the only AAA MMO for us Brasilians. I guess we have 5 or so servers running. More money for them.
Why would the game with the biggest sub base go F2P? While the game did peak in 2010 with 1.6 billion in revenue and only had 1.2 billion in revenue in 2011, thats still 1.2 billion in revenue. Do you know how many MMO development companies (not publishers) make a billion in revenue each year? Sure the game is over its prime but it is far from even considering a F2P model. I think many people feel F2P is great based on performance from years ago with DDO and LotRO. When those games went F2P there was not much competition. Now F2P is a standard and just going F2P does not mean you will make more money.
I didn't know my post implied it was going to happen soon. That's why I kept it short and asked for thoughts. Going F2P would be the only way I'd ever play the game again. In my opinion, it will happen eventually. Five years from now? I'd say it's a good chance. I kinda miss my toons.
(...OH WAIT I PRE-PURCHASED GW 2!!!! YAY!!!!
With a bit less than 10 million subs, I would think SWTOR would with its 1.3 mil go F2P as well as TERA and TSW before WOW ever buckles in... Not a big fan of WOW and I love the aforementioned games (especially TERA) but I aknowledge the behemoth that is WOW.
Even D3 will not be enough to displace the sub numbers for WOW
This. The F2P model is a way for devs to get more people to pay less; thus, the total income increases. 600k people forking 5 dollars a month is easier than 200k people at 15 month.
When you can get several million to fork over 15 a month, the chances of making more money going F2P are not really that good.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Marking this thread as "When will WoW go to F2P" #7551890412, please move along.
Dont only the US and EU pay subs for WoW (4-4.5 million if that anymore)??....I was under the impression that the Asian countries didnt pay a monthly but an hourly fee........
I think this has to do with the amount of cyber café they have there.
WoW is clearly not past it's prime. The only reason the game has lost subscriptions lately was because of the amount of MMO's being released, Swtor, Tera, Rift, AionF2P etc. WoW players go check them out, and come back for the expansion.
I can gaurentee you that WoW will increase in sub numbers from what they are now when Mists of Pandaria hits the shelves.
10+ million people still like the game, 1.7million like it so much they have signed 12 month contracts, and players will come pouring into the game when trailers for MoP come on the TV (like they always do.) and players will return for the expansion.
So, how exactly is WoW past it's prime? WoW has always lost subs after an expansion, and then gained them when the next expansion is released. It seems to me that WoW is constantly at its prime. (A prime that is somewhat like a rollercoaster)
I didn't know my post implied it was going to happen soon.
+1
Why should they ? WoW is a huge moneymaker. F2P is for games with really low population where P2P is no longer sufficient to keep it properly financed.
WoW will probably be P2P until its shut down thanks for lack of players. And at that point Blizzard should have an equally successful WoW2 since years.
WoW X-Fire still beats SWTOR numbers by ridiculous leaps nad bounds... just saying...
WoW MIGHT go F2P once "Titan" releases and thats a big if.
But they still pay for playtime.
Anyways 4 million still beats any top MMO sub numbers by at least double if one blindly beleives BW's launch sub number quote.
2016
If they ever decide too It won't be anytime before 2015.