When they read that Bioware’s Triple-A MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic was
converting to a free-to-play model this Fall, I doubt many gamers were surprised.
The Old Republic is just one of many
MMO’s that have made the switch from a sub-based business model to a F2P one
over the past few years, other notable examples being Turbine’s Lord of the Rings Online and SOE’s Everquest II. The question is, was the
plan to make it a sub-based MMO doomed from the start?
F2P seems to be all the rage these days which makes
sense given the current state of our economy and the sheer number of different
MMO’s out there. So where do the sub-based MMO’s fit in? Do games like Funcom’s
The Secret World and Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, games that still rely
on monthly subscriptions, have enough appeal and staying power to stick it out
alongside so many other F2P options?
While The
Secret World and World of Warcraft may
be two of the more prominent examples of sub-based MMO’s, comparing them might
be a little unfair considering The Secret
World just released barely a month ago while World of Warcraft has been around since 2005. Still, neither Funcom
nor Blizzard are unfamiliar with the F2P trend; two of Funcom’s other
well-known MMO’s Anarchy Online and Age of Conan have been doing rather well
since their switch to F2P and Blizzard recently introduced an unlimited free
trial for World of Warcraft aimed
specifically at bringing in new players.
So why cling to the seemingly archaic subscription-based
business model? Funcom’s Ragnar Tornquist says it’s a matter of content and
delivering a “growing, living world” to players. He believes that when it comes
down to either paying smaller prices for bits and pieces of content or paying a
monthly sub for a whole world of content that grows annually, he’s much happier
with the latter.
Many hailed The
Old Republic’s switch to F2P as the “death of the subscription-based MMO”
but neither Tornquist nor the folks over at Blizzard are so sure that’s true.
Tornquist believes that F2P is fine once a game has established itself (as Star Wars: The Old Republic did during
its opening months) but if you want to have an MMO expand and grow at a steady
pace, a subscription-based model is much more viable than a F2P one.
Nothing could be a greater example of this credo
than Blizzard’s World of Warcraft which,
even after nearly eight years, has managed to keep a healthy number of
subscription-paying players. During its long reign World of Warcraft has already had three major expansions with a
fourth one due out late next month. The quick and timely releases of these
expansions has no-doubt been largely because of the many subscriptions World of Warcraft brings in each month
as well as the popularity of Blizzard’s other major franchises such as Diablo and Starcraft.
While it may be easy for a company as large and
reputable as Blizzard to keep a subscription-based MMO going for so long,
Funcom might have a tougher road ahead of them. If they can make good on their
promise to deliver a constantly growing world to their players, perhaps they’ll
be able to do what Bioware couldn’t: give Blizzard’s dominance of the sub-based
MMO market a run for its money. One thing’s for certain however: F2P is on the
rise and it would seem World of Warcraft stands
as the one last bastion of hope for subscription-based MMO’s amidst the sea of
F2P titles.
Whether or not The
Secret World manages to rise up as well is a question for a later time; as
is whether or not World of Warcraft will
be able to retain its perch as we enter a new age of MMO’s.
Follow me on Twitter at @NateHohl and check out my other work at vgutopia.com, hookedgamers.com, tevice.com, and explosion.com
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