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SWTOR to go Free To Play?

June 16, 2012 by

Over the past 24 hours or so there’s been a lot of interest in some comments made by BioWare’s Emmanuel Lusinchi in an interview with UK magazine games™. Interestingly, the online interview preview appears to have been pulled, but you can still view the cached Google version.

The two comments being dissected so forensically are:

In regard to competition from free-to-play MMOs:

“I think it’s more than the free-to-play model – it’s more that there is a lot of competitive offers,” suggests Lusinchi. “If it was just free-to-play games and they weren’t very good it wouldn’t even be a question but there are definitely good games out there and good games coming out, so of course all of this competition impacts your plan with what you want to do.”

On feasibility of making SWTOR free-to-play:

“The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well,” he says. “Unless people are happy with what they have, they are constantly demanding updates, new modes and situations. 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.”

That’s the sum-total of information out there at present. None of it is that explicit, nor that surprising. The challenge BioWare face is that in some quarters going free-to-play is seen as admitting defeat – even though some games have grown going that route. There’s no right or wrong – it’s just how such a model would work that becomes key.

Over to you: do you think F2P is on the near horizon, and if so, what impact do you think it will have on SWTOR?

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528115078 David Koch

    If, SWTOR went free to play, I would come back. However they would have to make better looking armour or they will continue to lose people.

    • Jew

      lol yup. Thats what ea has to work on. Totally.

  • Soylent Green

    I would be very disappointed if TOR went F2P. IMO, F2P attracts scrubs and the immature. If you cannot afford the small cost of current subscription games, you probably should be doing things other than gaming.

    • Gloric

       I don’t believe affording has anything to do with it, personally. As I said in my comment and I know a good dozen people who share the opinion, it doesn’t drag us in like some other MMOs do. It wasn’t released with the key functionalities that we all expect these days; quick flashpoint groups, pvp optionality (you’re pretty much locked, no choice of type of PvP, etc..), and overall, some of the side content becomes needed and boring.
      I would play again if it went F2P simply because I could log in whenever I please and not worry about wasting $15 for the month that I will only spend 10-15 days (or less, as would be the case with others) worth of time playing.

  • Daathz

    If swtor went F2P it would become P2W(Pay 2 Win), and i would quit immediately.

    • nuzodok

      the easiest example of this is runescape

      • Annorius

        What? RS is a subscription based service if you want all the other skills and extras…

  • John

    Just started playing TOR last week (yeah I know late to the party)! I really hope it doesnt become free to play. For me that means that the developers will come out with less updates/fixes/new content and then the game will just eventually die. It smashes WoW – I really want it to be successful. 

    • Wlad_diaz

      U need to play longer son

    • sebastiaan van vliet

       F2P has absolutely no connection to how regular the updates happen, their are already a few MMO’s that turned ether F2P or freemium and they have more updates then allot of P2P game.

      i hope it go’s F2P or at least freemium, i left because the game doesn’t have the pull to be worth the sub.
      it’s a fun game but the grind is getting worse the higher the level, it simply ruins all fun.

  • Darthba11z

    Any game that is free to play is dead to me.

    I want even footing (no pay to win)
    I want regular content updates
    I want things fixed or made better (not fluff)

    I was still playing (and paying for) City of Heroes when it went free to play. I explored the “free” options while paying for my final month. Paying for new maps, new better powers, basic costumes, while at first seemed like a minimal investment. However if I went back to that game now I’d have to spend around $300 just to get my foot in the door of a supposedly “free” game? No thanks. Never, ever, F2P

  • Dave

    As opposed to making the game F2P how about this Bioware/EA. Listen to your fanbase. Listen to their suggestions. Make people excited to play the game again. Go hard in the marketing department. New updates, expansions, new classes, player housing. I want this game to be around a lot longer than SWG. Who knew gamers were so effin cheap?

    • Gloric

      Eh, I don’t like to say it this way. But “real gamers” spend their time on many, many games. SWTOR has to compete with those and beat them to be worth the subscription fee (rather than saving that money towards another game). So yeah, that’s all I really have to say. That l;ogic applies with non-gamers as well, but with gamers more-so.

  • Gloric

     The only way I would play SWTOR is if it went F2P. PLayed it on release, hell paid for early access, played for a month, quit, played another month when I was more in the mood, still quit. It’s something I would play when in the mood, it doesn’t drag me in like other MMOs, thus I wouldn’t pay a sub fee.
    Simple as I can put it.

    • Dave

      So yeah i read the three comments you posted here and it is clear that this game is not for you. Move along. You are perfectly entitled to your own opinion and good luck with it. Here is mine: The Old Republic is the best MMO I have ever played.

      • Carmend

        No it isn’t. It’s the (keyword) only MMO you’ve played. You are
        guaranteed one of the 560 employees EA games pays to promote their game
        in internet message boards as ‘viral marketing’.

        I haven’t played too many MMOs, but I’ve played enough to understand
        even while trying to promote SWTOR in a positive light, this game has
        nothing more and many parts worse than pre-existing MMOs.

        That doesn’t even touch upon the game engine not supporting multiple
        cores, a technology available to the consumer market since 2005.

        You’re ****ing up your own karma by promoting this game in internet chat
        boards, even if EA games pays you your minimum wage plus a few dollars.
        You could have washed windows for a living. You could actually have
        played this game instead of saying you did. EA games isn’t responsible
        for your behavior, you are. Remember my post the day you actually decide
        to try SWTOR, or when the entire ‘viral marketing’ department is
        scrapped. Remember me when you’re hiding in neighbouring Bulgaria to
        avoid war crimes tribunal.

        • jasoneth

          That’s a lot of trouble to go to for a troll post. If you really believe anyone who says anything positive must be being paid by EA, then you’re just wrong.

          I’ve played too much WoW, I love LOTRO, but SWTOR remains my favorite MMO. That’s my honest opinion. No one is paying me to feel as I do.

          While we’re being absurd, are you being paid by the Activion campaign to discredit SWTOR wherever possible?

          • Theloungelife

             I agree with Jason.  Swtor is a good time.  I’ve played wow, dc, lotro, and ddo.  I don’t hate any of those games, but overall I still prefer Swtor.  That said, I do think F2P, could be interesting.  I’m looking forward to them trialing it in July up to lvl 15

        • Hemo

          What a fuck wit. Your actually going to assume you know the gaming history of a random poster?

          Wow, ive heard of fuckwits before but you take the cake buddy,…

  • Kitama

    i think there is being too much read into this… i can’t see it going f2p any time soon. as far as we know they still have over 1mil subs. compare that to other games when they went f2p. none of them had that number. possibly this was a reference to the play the first 15lvls free thing that was just announced and was just misconstrued.
     

    • Hak

      I mean lets face it, the CSR’s Bioware have employed are a complete and utter joke. They should have pumped more money into that dept instead of outsourcing reps who are a). not fluent in english and b). Don’t actively play the MMO they are representing (if at all). The amount of terrible community reps out there making statements like this one (I hope this shitbird got sacked straight up), has had hugely negative repercussions.

  • Vaider

    Sad  Swtor is a good game.  Fan demands to much people complain as always why the fuck you guys get jobs in the gaming company and see if u can do any better. And bioware admiting defeat that early thats a shame. If only bioware started from episod1 and continued the saga from there would also be better. Plus lucas should have given this job of mmo to blizzard they would have done alot better. its sad how bioware admiting defeat due to the dicky pressure of the fans!!! grow some ballssssssssssss.

    • nuzodok

      i hope they keep it up too. its a shame that they seem to be giving up so quickly. although im glad bioware got the job rather than blizzard. because blizz would have made it similar to WoW without the story line. the storyline makes the gameplay unique and different from others i have played. its what keeps me into the game. i dont realize what lvl i am because im just trying to folow the story and see what happens next

    • PaleIchigo

      If you’re referencing Episode 1 as in “The Phantom Menace,” that takes place centuries after The Old Republic Saga, they have nothing to do with each other. Regardless, the fans have also voiced some valid concerns about the game and honestly I think F2P would be a good thing for it. I would go back to it and finish my storyline if it was free I just refuse to pay money for an MMO purely to see how my single-player campaign pans out when the actual MMO-Style Content on offer is lacklustre at best. Also, and while only a shadow of it’s former self, WoW is still the hands down best MMO on the market imho, and Blizz wouldn’t have taken the SW:TOR job with Project Titan getting underway.

  • Vincent Ha

    I will play it again if it goes F2P, I played the hell out of it when I bought it. I’d rather use my cash on food as opposed to a subscription to a star wars MMO.

    • pays taxes

       I like how people are using the sub fee as a reason not to play. Get a fucking job you pikers.

  • Xiana

    I beta tested SWTOR and i loved the game. I’ve played a LOT of MMOs, and this was the only game where I found myself playing at 2am. Unfortunately, the game was so expensive that I had no hope of getting a subscription (As much as I loved SWTOR, I like eating more ^_^). I secretly hope that the game will become F2P so I can play it again, but I am afraid that if it does that, then the devs will start making less and less new content and the new content would be crummy. I really hope that if bioware decides to make the game f2p, that they don’t start crapping out. Otherwise, the game will die and my heart will break.

    • Tomas

      $15 a month….
      If that’s the difference between eating and not, then there are other issues at play here…

      • Ob

        If people consider $15 a month some sort of expense, then you are either unemployed a school kid or in deep financial woes.

        $15 a month = 50 cents a day rounding out

        If you are bleating about that then seek financial advice

  • Ealol

    Same old story with EA.. They push a game out too early and it flopps..EA is a horrible corp.

  • M Marte

    F2P is the only way this game will get people back,i played for 5 months then got banned for saying the truth on forums and ingame that the game has become a complete failure and the dev’s don’t know fuck all on pvp content etc,and the failures on every patch dont get me started with that…

  • Acidnomak

    Looking it more widely and not comparing to other mmos swtor should go f2p. A game like this which lacks in front of other mmos but has a great story (like single player games) it makes someone , through an economical crisis , to hesitate and not continue subscription cause of swtor mmo lackness. I think bioware sees that but don’t admit their failure in this game. 

  • Richguy0112

    love how people on here saying they will come back if it goes free to play question with that though if your not playing swtor and havent played it for awhile y are you trolling on a swtor site what you just check sites of games you havent played in years to troll on them 

  • LooFiiK

    I think that if SWTOR goes f2p it will be good but they must take care of timing and other  things. Example of going f2p succes is lineage 2. Lineage 2 got over thousants players over one week. They started 4 new servers and released new patch short time after that.

  • Amar

    by f2p they mean ur going to be able to play till lv.15 untill u need to buy the game

  • Dillydoos

    If it goes F2P i will be really happy, and i feel they will get more people to play it, because people are quiting because of the subscription fee, if it went F2P so many people would go back to it

  • SWRPG fan 44

    I think if SWTOR became free, I would play it a lot, more, I am on time cards, and when my time card expires I am seriously considering dropping it, Because the main part of the game I like is the role-playing, single person aspect, and I don’t think it’s worth 30 dollars a pop to do something that I’ll play on and off, but there is so much content I’ll likely be playing like that (If it was free) for years to come! However, for this to work, It would have to be up to level 50, not just some teaser level 15 I keep hearing about.

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