Here is an interesting article that may give us a glimpse at the future of SWTOR.

Keep in mind that absolutely nothing is confirmed in the article, but this particular quote stands out: "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"

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/15/bioware-looking-at-free-to-play-for-the-old-republic

Not at all, at most we will have f2p trial upto lvl 15, if any mmo is heading towards f2p its wow, the huge merging of its china/asia servers, its black market selling BIS items and the real money ah going into it. remember that wows biggest playerbase is in asia/china market and raiders arnt going to be happy that you will be able to buy bis and what were raid only items for real money.

So as swtor is expanding into the asia market at the same time wow is declining in it very fast. SWTORS ip is strong enough to keep it subscription game for years, and look at other ea mmos like warhammer, they are still sub games so no, this will stay subs.

business wise I would say they HAVE TO look into, and have several ideas on hand, fleshed out, and able to be implemented quickly if or when the need arises.

People will see this, jump to conclusions, because- lets face it, many gamers of the mmo species are a flighty creature easily spooked.

So thats really my assessment. It's just smart Business to fully know all options open in case they are ever needed.

lol definitely thinking of holding after my time expires for the game to go free to play. I was already thinking of it with how the game is dying so badly they had to merge every server and not just a few and the many many other signs of how bad the game is doing. Don't see the point in supporting a game that will go free to play in time so it would be a better idea to wait it out. And for the false hope of it just the 15 levels, yeah... let's keep saying that's all it will be, lol.

You do realise that they have upped the numbers able to play on servers, didnt you notice how you dont have to q or lag even when there is 600 on your side on the fleet never mind the rest of the server or other side. They have basically made what was in wow battlegroups on swtor a server.

Kid yourself all you want but if you think its so bad how come your still here and not on wow or another mmo or game.

Not at all, at most we will have f2p trial upto lvl 15, if any mmo is heading towards f2p its wow, the huge merging of its china/asia servers, its black market selling BIS items and the real money ah going into it. remember that wows biggest playerbase is in asia/china market and raiders arnt going to be happy that you will be able to buy bis and what were raid only items for real money.

I see your "flawless" logic, a game with 9-10mil subscribers going f2p model because 15$ per month from 10mil players (150mil $ per month) is not a good profit from p2p model... However a game with 1mil subscribers (SWTOR) have not even thinking about going f2p because... well, i don't... common sense lost me here... maybe becasue you hate wow and like swtor? (but as a news for you, global market and game company strategies does't based only on your humble opinion )

They'll be forced to go full f2p sooner, or later. I don't think they can make it on less than 500k subs, and they'll be down to that, or lower, soon.

The thing is that, there are many great games coming out soon. I saw some footage of Planetside 2 and I was like. "This game is gonna be f2p? but it looks awesome" I also hear that Neverwinter will be f2p, End of Nations, and yes, some of those may not be RPGs, but people can like more than one genre, you know?

You do realise that they have upped the numbers able to play on servers, didnt you notice how you dont have to q or lag even when there is 600 on your side on the fleet never mind the rest of the server or other side. They have basically made what was in wow battlegroups on swtor a server.

 

Kid yourself all you want but if you think its so bad how come your still here and not on wow or another mmo or game.

600 people spells a massively successful game to you? LOL well damn, then the free to play is not needed at all. Kid your self all you want but just because every player that's left over in one server doesn't spell a successful game at all. I mean I love it, don't get me wrong. With the game dying so badly it is nice to see people for once and I hope so much it can continue to be a p2p game with more people coming back. I am here because I wanted to play, why else would I be here? And because of that I should be a blinded fanboy like you people?

I see your "flawless" logic, a game with 9-10mil subscribers going f2p model because 15$ per month from 10mil players (150mil $ per month) is not a good profit from p2p model... However a game with 1mil subscribers (SWTOR) have not even thinking about going f2p because... well, i don't... common sense lost me here... maybe becasue you hate wow and like swtor? (but as a news for you, global market and game company strategies does't based only on your humble opinion )

OK lets break this down shall we, wow has had to merge tons of its china servers, not increase caps on them and put people onto mega servers like here but consolidate them, wow has had to get rid of battlegroups and just do regions because the q's wernt poping as fast as before cos there arnt as many people anymore. WoW is close to 9/10 years old and vivienda are thinking of selling blizzard.

And we have SWTOR, run by bioware and owned by EA, ea have an mmo now that is on deaths door for sub numbers compared to other games and is still subscription which is warhammer. SWTOR is only 6 months old, it has all the features or should i say most of that people wanted coming in, they have content designed and being made ready for upto a year from nows release. Star Wars is one of the strongest IP's going and still managed to keep swg subscription based so what in the world make you think for one second this will go F2P beyond the trial.

600 people spells a massively successful game to you? LOL well damn, then the free to play is not needed at all. Kid your self all you want but just because every player that's left over in one server doesn't spell a successful game at all. I mean I love it, don't get me wrong. With the game dying so badly it is nice to see people for once and I hope so much it can continue to be a p2p game with more people coming back. I am here because I wanted to play, why else would I be here? And because of that I should be a blinded fanboy like you people?

if there are 600 per side just on the fleet thats 1200 players just on the fleets at prime time, never mind off time or anywhere else in the game world, thats equal to an old wow battlegroup. how many battlegroups did wow have. Bear in mind these are the numbers after just 6 months and before any of the features people have left until they come in have arrived.

They'll be forced to go full f2p sooner, or later. I don't think they can make it on less than 500k subs, and they'll be down to that, or lower, soon.

Rift is still not F2P and has less subs.

It all depends.

The problem is, you all think F2P is a "FAIL! THIS GAME HAS FAILED!" times have changed though. Many games are thriving on such a model and a lot of the newer games are adapting this model.

As long as it's not pay to win I don't see a problem with it. Let the players pay for expansions and content and vanity items and that is it.

Right now though I don't see it with SWTOR.

if there are 600 per side just on the fleet thats 1200 players just on the fleets at prime time, never mind off time or anywhere else in the game world, thats equal to an old wow battlegroup. how many battlegroups did wow have. Bear in mind these are the numbers after just 6 months and before any of the features people have left until they come in have arrived.

Like I said. I liked the numbers a lot, it was great to see. But it's not like that was subs coming back to get all excited for it. It's just the same people all crushed together now in one place. I am hoping with this and patch 1.3 that more subs will come in because I don't want this game going f2p but I have always had that concern as this game began to die off at a fast rate. Which is a shame actually because BW has given so much over these 6 months including extra time to play, patches very often, a good amount of content in 6 months.

Like it or not, F2P is the future of MMO's if the genre is to survive. Or at the very least, the GW model of buy the game and not pay monthly. With so many MMO's nowadays and more and more big name publishers and IP's getting involved, I don't see how having all of them be strictly sub based is feasible. There will have to be some form of F2P, cause honestly these days no matter what you do, you won't have a big number of long time exclusive customers. People are going to try the new things and you can't make your product be harder to access than the rest.

Of course, we as MMO players need to grow up as well. Stop associating F2P with "LOL GAME FAILED". See what LotrO is doing. If the game really failed, there would be no reason to have 2 expansion packs along with regular content updates as well, since going F2P. Plenty of people are playing it. Its being run as any other MMO, except it has a cash shop. GW2 which is supposed to be the mana of all MMO's is going to have a cash shop. F2P is going to be the standard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgI2ZQVyrBo&feature=related

However, I do not think it will fully f2p. Just till a certain level. Which is 15 That's what they are talking about

Like I said. I liked the numbers a lot, it was great to see. But it's not like that was subs coming back to get all excited for it. It's just the same people all crushed together now in one place. I am hoping with this and patch 1.3 that more subs will come in because I don't want this game going f2p but I have always had that concern as this game began to die off at a fast rate. Which is a shame actually because BW has given so much over these 6 months including extra time to play, patches very often, a good amount of content in 6 months.

Your right those arnt subs coming back to get all excited about, cos they were people still here who were playing on dead servers, dead servers due to things like no ranked pvp, no group finder etc, those are coming in 1.3. And your right BW have given alot but what most people wanted was quality of life and simply left until thats here.

But lets look at this from this point of view, on the 6 month mark swtor has over a million subscribers, thats alot, thats a freaking lot. we all know that the game didnt release with its maximum potential, not even close. But we know whats coming, new planets, new races, new companions, new missions, new operations and flashpoints, new battlegrounds and a new space game to mention a few.

That there is potential, good potential, if they end up doing sandbox planets, mini games, swoop racing thats win win simply due to the fact it spreads the game into markets normally mmos cant get into. With all that and EA's track record this aint going f2p.

Here is the biggest joke about f2p.....

Wait for it....

It sucks.

It's nothing like the gaming experience you're used to in any game you've ever played (probably) before. Trust me, you'll end up spending more and you won't be happy because someone spent even more and got *just* that much better than you.

Welcome to the new market of gouging out consumers.

I support the subscription model and so should you.

Like it or not, F2P is the future of MMO's if the genre is to survive.

No, it's some CEO point of view, when he need a new Yacht or Villa. More than 90% of all mmos players in the world agreed that P2P is much better, and they will haapily give monthly fee to a company who produce good game (mmo).

F2P is forced because of:

p1: all gamming CEOs want to be richer than they are now

p2: producing very bad game, but sill... look p1.

It's not furture which choosed by players, so noone likes it.

Well considering the lead designer is not Emmanuel it's Daniel I would take it with a grain of salt. Emmanuel is their Engineering/Tech lead. Even if SWTOR adopts a Free to Play model to get more people into the game who really cares? You can tell from E3 that Free to Play is becoming more and more mainstream anyways, if they still offer up the subscription service with it I would pay 15 a month still. These transfers did wonders for a lot of people. I did my first ever PUG Eternity Vault raid (story mode) since a lot of my core members are trying to "get rich" on Diablo 3 atm. The raid went fine minus one wipe at SOA, and everyone was respectful and cool about it.

Loving the game again because it feels like an MMO once more. Looking forward to 1.3 and beyond, I think they might have actually turned this game a round a bit.

600 people spells a massively successful game to you? LOL well damn, then the free to play is not needed at all. Kid your self all you want but just because every player that's left over in one server doesn't spell a successful game at all. I mean I love it, don't get me wrong. With the game dying so badly it is nice to see people for once and I hope so much it can continue to be a p2p game with more people coming back. I am here because I wanted to play, why else would I be here? And because of that I should be a blinded fanboy like you people?

600 people on fleet does not equal 600 people online.

Just saying..

600 people on fleet does not equal 600 people online.

 

Just saying..

nah, but it's 90% of lvl 50s. The rest is in warzones/ops/fps.

nah, but it's 90% of lvl 50s. The rest is in warzones/ops/fps.

Really.. if 600 people are waiting for warzone pops or FPs/OPs to happen, how many more do you think are actually busy doing them? People stay on fleet for a reason, and many more go out into the world for a reason.

Like I said. I liked the numbers a lot, it was great to see. But it's not like that was subs coming back to get all excited for it. It's just the same people all crushed together now in one place. I am hoping with this and patch 1.3 that more subs will come in because I don't want this game going f2p but I have always had that concern as this game began to die off at a fast rate. Which is a shame actually because BW has given so much over these 6 months including extra time to play, patches very often, a good amount of content in 6 months.

Actually.. just the last 2 days, my guild has gained almost have a dozen of new applicants who have specifically returned to the game now that the servers have been merged. I know it's just one example, but it goes against your claim that people have not come back to get all excited about the transfer.

I wonder how many more will return with 1.3 and the Group Finder it brings. Taking away the one remaining annoyance this game has: difficulty of finding a Pickup Group.