Star Wars: The Old Republic going free to level 15
Star Wars: The Old Republic is going free-to-play through level 15 in July.
We've seen plenty of MMOs making the move to free-to-play, and we've wondered if Star Wars: The Old Republic won't eventually head in that direction. While BioWare isn't giving up the premium price ghost yet, it took a seeming half-step in that direction today with the announcement of the game going free-to-play through level 15.
The free demo-like feature won't launch until July. Not coincidentally, it seems similar to a recent move in World of Warcraft's F2P through level 20. Other upcoming features include new Companions, a new Nightmare difficulty, and a new planet.
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replySteve Watts posted a new article, Star Wars: The Old Republic going free to level 15.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is going free-to-play through level 15 in July.-
Shocking.
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And generally with most of these modern mmo's the first ~20 levels are the most polished. Get people hooked with the free early levels. I understand not doing it at launch but seems like it would be a good business model a month or two later.
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Plus let's be honest if the game sells really well you don't need to. They still want you to pay the $60 entry fee and the monthly fee. WoW can do this, so why not (game X)?
If SWTOR cost $200M to develop and they're already dipping their toes into the F2P pool they must be really really fucked.
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I think "going free-to-play" isn't as simple as just not charging any more. There's a lot that goes into developing a business model, building a billing system to handle tons of microtransactions, creating content people actually want to buy, etc. I don't think it is EA holding on to the subscription model as trying to figure out how to convert this thing to free-to-play.
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How many days do you think you would play KOTOR3 for?
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Yer but thats not a fair argument to make, TOR is meant to last you for way more than 30 days, it's an MMO.
While a new KOTOR game would last you hopefully the length of a decent Single Player RPG. You might as well of said how many days would a mass effect game last you.
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Cuz GW is totally an MMO. And GW2 doesn't have an upfront cost or anything and has shown itself to be successful after launch.
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So I am betting Old Republic is shutdown in two years. Maybe a year.
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Was asking these questions just after EQ launched and the next one was on the horizon; which I think was Dark Ages of Camelot. So far I'd say the market can handle 1 big mmo, a couple of next tier and then less than scraps. But, I also see the market totally changed the last few years. More people playing in total, but not playing as long. Think mmo as a genre has already peaked, like fps peaked before mmos were so huge.
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I don't think MMOs have peaked but the current type of quest-based and grinding types of MMOs are probably near their limits. It's such simplistic and shallow gameplay that it shouldn't be surprising that tolerance is limited when yet another quest/grind game comes out. Back in the naive days of UO, there was the idea of GM-driven content and the players themselves contributed to the game to a limited degree. New games need to provide reasons to give players a reason to log in every week or every day. New activities, events, letting players actually drive some of the content (e.g. Contested zones or property), GM-run adventures, something like that.
I know some games have those elements but that's probably the only reason to keep me coming back. Single player RPGs are so much more fun and rewarding to play that I'm not going to bother with an MMO for a while. My WoW friends try the latest MMO but they always go crawling back to WoW in the end.
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yea that game is boring as shit once you hit the endgame
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Holding out with playing this game is starting to pay off! I always wanted to try it out and just go through the story, and this is good news for me.
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So, free-to-15, but then you have to buy the game and pay monthly fees? Or monthly fees only? Because those are two hugely different things.
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Sounds like its an extended trial, play to 15 for free then buy the game if you are interested.
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It might get them some box sales, 1-20 is pretty solid the warts don't begin to show till the later levels.
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Yeah, with the speed upgrades, the post-first planet stuff might not be so bad now.
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Still hoping for proper space combat :(
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