Star Wars the Old Republic goes free to play this fall
It seems the Star Wars brand just isn’t enough to keep people paying on the regular. After reporting a significant loss of subscribers due to the lack of end-game content, BioWare has made the logical choice to go free to play with Star Wars the Old Republic.
According to the press release, BioWare is offering two options in their F2P model:
Subscription – A service designed for players who want unrestricted access to all the game features via ongoing subscription or by redeeming a Game Time Card. In addition to gaining access to all game content as our current subscribers do now, subscribers will receive ongoing monthly grants of Cartel Coins, the new virtual currency that will be introduced later this fall. Cartel Coins can be used to purchase valuable in-game items including customizable gear and convenience features that will enhance the game play experience.
Free-To-Play – The first 50 levels will be Free-to-Play, with restrictions on access to new content and advanced player features. Some restrictions can be “unlocked” with Cartel Coins.
Personally, I thought it was pretty arrogant to think that Star Wars is strong enough to come out as a full blown subscription game when everyone else in the industry has already begun to jump that ship. And to add insult to injury, SWTOR offers nothing new to the table of MMO’s as far as gameplay.
It’s gonna take more than creative payment plans to get me to come back to the game. *yawn*
Are you willing to pay a premium to access higher levels?
Waited for this game for 2 years. Even Pre-Purchased the Collector’s Edition. When they allowed us in for early access it was great at first. After leveling up a bit you see some key feature you expect from all MMOs to be missing. One such being easy access to open world PvP. Not just zones designated for it. The storyline was awesome but after one playthrough of it you just don’t want to go through it again.
After my Guild beat all the Hardmode Content within a month of the Game being released many of us quit and were forced to play F2P Games like League of Legends and Betas for other games. Just hope That Guild Wars 2 Keeps up with what I’ve played with in the Beta. MMO Gaming needs something besides WoW 🙁
I was lucky enough to get into the early betas (prior to the cruddy free beta weekend groups) for TOR. I was able to finish two classes off story-wise. I had played the first planet on three other classes. TOR is an alright single-player game that you have to go on-line to play. However, I just didn’t see the need to pay for the game AND a subscription to continually play the same game over and over. The multiplayer aspect just didn’t appeal to me that much. I am not into PvP and operations. I did enjoy doing flashpoints over and over again with folks I knew (my entire TOR guild was invited to test). But, no, I cancelled my pre-order and have not regretted it. I will be buying GW2 because I know I can play a character, go off and play a bunch of other games for any length of time, and still come back and play. Arenanet servers will be there. I’m not so sure if Bioware will keep the lights on after tanking so hard.