Tom Chilton says Blizzard is considering a F2P model for WoW

[Arnock]

Stumbled across this article today.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/23/465024 ... the-casual

"For Blizzard it makes sense [to go free-to-play] at some point. But a lot of the risk is in making that transition. You her stories about developers going free-to-play and getting double the number of players, but you don't always know it works out that way and how long it stays that way. We really don't know what the rate is before people drop off and lose interest."

[Flex]

earlier quote from Now Gamer

I definitely think that free-to-play MMOs will be around for a very long time. At some point it's possible that World of Warcraft could end up being free-to-play, but I do think there's always room for there to be subscription games.

I've thought from the beginning that Titan would be F2P from the ground up, that's probably what the recent core redesign is about, them reaching the same point.

[Worldie]

The thing is, going for F2P would surely bring a lot of new players (and possibly several old players back as well).
But it will also lower the quality of the average players (remember "lower level/rankings" of F2P games are plagued by trolls and kids).

It would also mean WoW would lose the Subscription income, so should have to gain that income (which is quite sustantial) from another source. Probably we'd start seeing stuff like Exp / Honor / VP / CP gain bonuses on the store for example.

[Lieris]

icalledit.gif

F2P business model and new expansion to be revealed at Blizzcon?

[Nikachelle]

The thing is, going for F2P would surely bring a lot of new players (and possibly several old players back as well).

I doubt the old players bit. Most people don't quit because of the cost. One of the biggest deterrents is the cost when you're first starting, but you quickly forget about it after you're already deeply involved. And it's not like the subscription costs have ever gone up (at least, not that I can recall).

I do agree that F2P will bring a whole new player base. And probably one you don't want since everyone's 8 year old children will be signing up.

[Fetzie]

Yeah, you think LFG/R chat is obnoxious now, imagine what it'll be like with the LoL crowd signing up.

[Shamora]

I am willin to bet that Blizz has always been considering a F2P model cause it would be foolish not to at least consider all their options. However I don't think this means that WoW is goin F2P anytime soon. I don't believe that WoW is anywhere near low enough numbers that lossin subscriber money for F2P cash from a portion of a potentially increased player base is gonna be profitable enough for Blizz to suffer through the switch.

[fuzzygeek]

Pertinent: "at some point."

[Newsom]

"it's possible" != "it will eventually happen"

[Worldie]

I doubt the old players bit. Most people don't quit because of the cost. One of the biggest deterrents is the cost when you're first starting, but you quickly forget about it after you're already deeply involved. And it's not like the subscription costs have ever gone up (at least, not that I can recall).

What I meant with that was, that I think several old players who quit out of boredom would (at least, I would) consider coming back in super-casual manner, as once the game is free you really don't lose anything by playing once in a while.

[fuzzygeek]

They really need to get the desktop chat client running. We have people that quit some time ago that would hang out in chat, which would almost certainly lead to hanging out in game. It's the ties that bind.

[Worldie]

It used to work well (I have a friend who had the beta test, and he could chat just fine from it, even though he coulnd't tell me what he was chatting with due to NDA at time).

Not sure why they removed it.

[Fetzie]

It was disabled due to a bug they needed to fix and they never got round to implementing it again.

[kenshin648]

They should go with a model similar to guild wars, where you pay for the base game and the expansions.

If they do something like that, it would be reason enough for me to start playing again.

[Worldie]

Remember that taking off the subscription is going to take off 7kk+13€ per month = 91 million euros per month of income.

That's not a small amount, and it has to come from something else. Losing 91 millions per month would mean having to dramatically reduce the people that work on WoW.

[Thels]

That's not an exact figure, as a decent portion of the market doesn't go by subscription (Some (or all?) of the Asian market).

But yeah, with 7.7 million subscribers, that's a lot of guaranteed income. It will be pretty hard to attract so many new players who will invest so massively into the shop.

Of course they're considering their options, but I don't see them flipping the switch until the playerbase drops way lower than it currently is. Under 2 million at least, if not lower.

[Worldie]

Asian market is still by subscription, just they pay per hour rather than per month as far as I know.

[Thels]

Pay per hour is not exactly a subscription, is it? If it is, then my English is failing on me again.

Either way, since they pay by hour and not as a fixed monthly fee, the end results will vary somewhat. It's not going to make a major difference, though.

[Teranoid]

I wonder if there be a premium option that allows me to be segregated from the inevitable influx of braindead idiots that will plague this game if it happens.

[Lieris]

Remember that taking off the subscription is going to take off 7kk+13€ per month = 91 million euros per month of income.

That's not a small amount, and it has to come from something else. Losing 91 millions per month would mean having to dramatically reduce the people that work on WoW.

They are not making 91m a month on subscription money.

[insert explanation of Asian "subscription" models here and a note that buying any kind of game time whether it's one month, the full three months or just one hour in a given quarter counts as being a WoW subscriber]

[Lieris]

I wonder if there be a premium option that allows me to be segregated from the inevitable influx of braindead idiots that will plague this game if it happens.

I don't think the subscription system has been insulating you from that. :p That ship sailed some time ago.

[fuzzygeek]

I wonder if there be a premium option that allows me to be segregated from the inevitable influx of braindead idiots that will plague this game if it happens.

It's called leaving general chat and only doing things with your guild.

[Worldie]

Sadly if you have an actually active game life, you can't pester the guild everytime you want to do a 5 men or LFR

[cdan]

I am looking forward to wielding the Sacred Coca Cola Can Mace of Menacing Vengeance that I bought from the Blizzard shop. Will go well with the red and white stripes on my Colgate Whitening Gel Shield of Tartar Protection.

All hail Corporate Sponsorship.

[Flex]

[insert explanation of Asian "subscription" models here and a note that buying any kind of game time whether it's one month, the full three months or just one hour in a given quarter counts as being a WoW subscriber]

They also need to have been logged in to the game within 30 days of the reporting date.