@Dourin: Considering how striped down the F2P mode is, paying $15 for the box would be ridiculous and definitely something to complaini about. But that's not how it works. The F2P version is completely free to download and play, the retail version is knocked down to $15 for anyone who wants to pick it up and pay the subscription.

I'm mostly curious as to how this will affect the Elder Scrolls though. That game has had just as much a negative fan reaction as Old Republic did and after this news, I can't see them launching without some kind of alternative payment model.

As someone who still enjoys Star Wars, at least more than most people who at one point liked it. I was pretty excited for this game, but even being a fan, I couldn't bring myself to pay a monthly fee. And given that the largest demographic Star Wars is currently reaching is kids, the idea of forcing them to pay month by month is outrageous. I knew this was coming from the moment the game was announced. It really is a shame though.

But, now that I won't have to pay for it, I'm actually going to play this game. Which I really wish wasn't the case, but you just can't get away with subscription based games anymore.

Called it. . . 6 months ago. Hopefully this sends a message to Beth about Elder Scrolls Online and why it should be free too.

Oh my god I just can believe it I am so surprised it came out of nowhere oh my god.

This game just went from being an uninteresting addition to the MMO circuit to arguably the best F2P MMO on the market.

Oh joy...here come the gold sellers....

On a more cheerfull note, at least the capital city will feel like a city again and less like a...village lol.

I personally feel that Star War has it very hardcore fan base, and I will stay away from it as far away as possible because it got Star War on the title.

I'm not surprised It's going F2P but for whatever reason seeing it as a reality is kinda saddening. I always wanted this game to succeed but when I really think about it, it's for absolutely NO reason since it has so many problems with the way it's designed. I don't want to say it's soulless but there was something completely vacant about it. Except the story elements, and for that to be the crux of your standard MMORPG, it stands out big time.

All I can think of now is how Bethesda must feel about their probable future of repeating this exact scenario with TES Online. I don't know how much that game cost to make but probably not as much as SWTOR.

Not saying F2P can't work obviously, in fact it should be and will eventually be the standard from here on out, as long the F2P models are fair and earnest. When they aren't its somehow worse than a monthly subscription...a lot worse.

@RedRoach said:

Just look at WoW: Cataclysm. In this expansion they focused too much on making new leveling content and not nearly enough on end game content. This lead to WoW's first subscriber drop ever. Leveling is really a prequel to the actual game, which is raiding, and pvping at max level. leveling is very minor in the grand scheme of things and focusing too much on it was TOR's downfall.

Way to totally remind me why I hate the conventional MMO.

This is kinda sad.

I am pretty sure most people if not everyone saw this coming. No doubt in my mind it was going free to play

The world just keeps getting better for gamers on a tight budget.

remember all the old republic fanboys predicting wows demise with its release

LOL

Going Free To Play is a good thing, I hate that there's still this weird idea that free to play means it's a bad game. It just means they couldn't support it in this kind of environment. EA will probably make a lot more money now that it's free to play similar to how Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online have made way more money since their free to play conversions.

im honestly happy now they can make another KOTOR ! i haven't bean playing swtor since i think the end of the 2nd month after launch.

the real problem in swtor was not bad game play it just didnt have long grinding bs to make people chase down one peace of gear for a month or a crafting plan it takes like 2 3 weaks to do everything in the game after that so well within 6 months you can have every class lvl 50. witch is what everyone asked for a game with no grinding only problem is that sadly it dose not sell subscriptions. :-) KOTOR 3 REVENGE OF THE STORY holiday season 2014 on xbox 365 ps4 wiiU and pc

Neat-o. I still want to play it but (a) I need a new computer and (b) I need to find some free time. I plan to take care of "a" by the end of the summer so hopefully, I'll be able to check it out this fall. With all the postponements to 2013, there aren't too many games that excite me for the remainder of the year anyway.

This is a very good thing for us, because this means we have KOTOR3 right here.
 
Now, how the fuck is Warhammer Online still alive?
 
DAoC I understand because it's the greatest PVP MMO of all time but..

"This is so surprising!" said absolutely no one.

Elder Scrolls Online: look at this. This is your future.

Blizzard has put at least a decade of development towards making WoW the perfect storm. If you can't match them in development, you've got to rethink the genre by either going free to play or escaping the cookie cutter WoW model. Sadly the majority of the subscribers people hope to leach from WoW all want the convenience and familiarity with that cookie cutter model.

Yeah, it was real hard to predict this one. Good job, everyone. This prediction brought to you by the visionaries that brought you "Motion controls are going to be janky" and "No one is going to give a shit about cloud gaming for a long time".

Here's a general rule of thumb. If a company can make more money, they will attempt to do so, specially so if the previous attempt failed. F2P can generate more revenue for MMOs with smaller communities. Time for me to take my brilliant insight to the GameFAQs game boards. I hear they think fighting games are going to stop having DLC on the launch disk.

Going to free-to-play worked financially well for Lord of the Rings Online. I might go back to my Bounty Hunter. They will be going free-to-play right around the time that Mists of Pandara launches.

Pretty much called this to happen when I quit a few months ago...after a month. The game's an interesting single player game but it's no MMO. This is why you don't let companies with no MMO experience, make one of these types of games. I've said it before and I'll say it again, they should have just made KOTOR 3 instead.

Dammit I can't help but laugh at this.

I'm honestly surprised they recognised their model was outmoded so quickly. I don't know how much difference this change can make at this point, though.

@Crunchman said:

WoW...

Ba-doom tsh. Excellent execution.

You could tell that this was going to happen ever since they started having free weekends.

@Jimbo said:

I think that Bungie shooter could be interesting, particularly how it could potentially be tied up with XBL - ie. maybe it's Microsoft exclusive, and access is considered as a part of the XBL Gold subscription, with Acti then getting a cut of the Gold subscriptions (based on how popular the game proves to be or whatever). It would potentially be a huge draw for the new Xbox, and a cut of Gold subscriptions would make Acti mega $$$s.

You fuckin' crazy, son.

From Sub to F2P in under 12 parsecs!

Oh KOTOR 3, where art thou?...

Maybe if you had made KOTOR 3 instead.... fuckers. (No I am not bitter).

What is the level cap? How much of the game can you see until level 50?

I'm interested, however GW2 is going to be my gaming priority soon so this change comes bit too late.

should have just made KOTOR 3....

@zudthespud said:

What is the level cap? How much of the game can you see until level 50?

Played it for a couple weeks and made it to around level 25 before getting completely bored with it. What a waste of £60.

i made it to level cap on my sith assassin before quitting. i enjoyed my time with it. the story was even kinda cool at times. i made a sex cult that worshiped me.

Agreed, they should have just done Kotor3 instead or even something new non-mmo with Star Wars.

Not even F2P can save TOR.

@Cloneslayer said:

should have just made KOTOR 3....

Obsidian could surely have used the work, and I'm convinced Chris Avellone is the only dude left who can tell an interesting Star Wars story.

Oh haha, that didnt take long, i love it. But i bet this is a smart thing to do for them, and the game will grown because of it, just look at DCUO as an example.

So is it worth it to play though at least one character when it goes F2P? I loved the first two KOTORs, but couldn't justiy a monthly fee for this when I've got other MMOs I'm playing too. I'd be playing it for the story, not the gameplay.

Glad I waited.

What a surprise... *sarcasm off the chart*

@Lulzalot said:

Not even F2P can save TOR.

it saved... well all of the non WoW mmos, more or less.

@Xerxes8933A said:

So is it worth it to play though at least one character when it goes F2P? I loved the first two KOTORs, but couldn't justiy a monthly fee for this when I've got other MMOs I'm playing too. I'd be playing it for the story, not the gameplay.

yeah, i had alot of fun with the story. if you're going for the most "KOTORy" storyline, go with the jedi knight, that story is basically "KOTOR3". its the most epic and shit. its not a bad game, and i really dont understand why people seem to WANT it to fail.

Cool, I might go and play those 50 levels now.

This was a bad idea from the start, I dont have any sympathy for Bioware or EA. As soon as this was announced fans of KOTOR spoke out against it.(granted Star Wars fans speak out against anything related to SW) Yet they were blinded by the best case scanario of this being the next 'WoW-Killer' which is a term that's getting dumber every year. (there's so many MMOs and they're all basicly WoW)

I just hope this sends a message to other studios not to invest so heavily in something that's already been done to death unless they're absoulutely sure people want more of it. (CoD, BF, AC, Halo etc.)

Until the economy gets better, the only way a new mmo is going to be profitable is if the whole fucking thing, from design to story to sounds to music to gameplay, is all auto-generated. I'm joking, but I'm serious.

They thought the Star Wars and Bioware names would carry a game that just isn't any fun. They were wrong.

The game's one "innovation" is that it brings Bioware's style of storytelling to a traditional grindy MMO experience. That is not something you pay $15 a month for.

Having played the game for a bit and then seeing this announcement, they are going to screw up the F2P model on this pretty hard. Here's why:

1. They are limiting how many Warzones (PvP), Flashpoints (instances), and Space Missions (daily stuff) you can do per week. This is BAD! These are the bread and butter of your game, and you are LIMITING how much people can run them? If they are also going to limit the DIFFICULTY they can be played at, it's even worse.
2. You cannot do Operations (raids) at all if you are a free player. You are going to LOCK free players out of the high end content because...................?
3. You will only be able to go up to level 50. That is the current level cap (IIRC). They are raising the cap during the fall, which means that you will only be able to access up to a certain point.
4. With character creation, they are locking species.

Now, if they are SMART, they will make it like Dungeons & Dragons Online. In that, if you are on the F2P model, you buy one thing from the DDO Store and it will upgrade your account to a Premium account. This is still lower than a Subscriber account, but you get some additional benefits that does not feel restrictive at all. Meanwhile, they sell their "Adventure Packs", which are the new zones, instances, and raids. They are relatively cheap (around $10 to $15 a piece), and it allows you to pick and choose what you want. It's a very smart business model, and it's probably why DDO has been so successful over the years. If TOR can do it in that same manner (letting you buy the new instances, raids, the ability to level past 50, etc etc), then they will be able to succeed and have some of my money again. Unfortunately, it also depends a great deal on if they can keep good quality content coming out and not botch their patches.

People quit en masse because of patch 1.2. It killed healers, and because of that, you couldn't run anything. My server went from 200 people minimum on Imperial Fleet daily to about 10 within the course of two days. By the time it was fixed, it was too little too late. Moreover, Karagga's Palace was too easy of a raid, even on its higher difficulties. When it's your first time even LEADING a raid in an instance and you can complete Hard Mode without a single wipe, you know it's too easy. Nightmare presented a little challenge, but that was only when you got to Fabricator and the pulls before it.

Nonetheless, I'll pick it back up when the F2P hits, just to see how things have progressed in the game. It will be fighting for time thanks to Guild Wars 2 hitting at the end of the month (as well as my continued time sink with League of Legends and Heroclix), but I'm hoping it will be a worthwhile F2P experience.