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[Column] General: Is WoW F2P Creeping Closer?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
These days, it doesn't seem to take much at all to start another round of speculation that World of Warcraft is about to implement some form of free to play. I've felt for some time that this will eventually happen, at least on a regional basis, with China most likely. The inevitable counter-argument is that the venerable game brings in too much money via subscriptions to change. However, is this assumption as solid as those who make it would like to be?
Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The Free Zone: Is WoW F2P Creeping Closer?
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Comments
l2p
They are expanding the eligibiltiy (in a common sense way) of the existing free trial that has been in place for 8 years...
This is a clickbate article if I have ever seen one....
While it might be interesting to watch all of the current F2P games panic at a WoW F2P announcement, I do not want to see wow go F2P.
I think Blizzard would have a better F2P monetization system than most companies, but the temptation to add stuff other than cosmetic would likely become too great and even Blizzard would cave in and make the cash shop a must for end game content. I want to pay my set monthly sub and get access to everything the game has to offer besides a few cosmetics.
I do not want to pay for a sub and still have to use the cash shop, or play a game that spends 90% of the continuing development on cash shop "content".
WoW becoming f2p?
Comeon people. It's simple math.
I hate WoW but apparently 7 million care enough for it to pay up. Every. Month.
Why would Blizzy stop milking their cow, especially since the cow is healthy and willing?
Articles like these..
Giving up hundreds of millions of dollars in guaranteed revenue to rely on a cash shop...
The talk of allowing game time to be sold for gold apparently is just smoke and mirrors...
yeah, ok.
You have to remember Richard Aihoshi has built his entire online writing career around the idea of F2P. He is going to interpret anything he can in the best possible light for F2P.
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Short answer: No.
Long answer: Noooooooooooooo.
Seriously, WoW still has a very, very long ways to go before F2P becomes a more profitable option for them. They're still rolling in money because of the game. Will it go F2P? Maybe at some point well down the road, but as it stands now it's still got many, many years to go before the potential revenue as a F2P game outpaces its revenue as a P2P game.
No, it's not. It's asking a legitimate question. The free trial (starter edition) is vastly different than a f2p title. For one, it's very restrictive on levels, chat, and other things. In other f2p titles, these restrictions aren't usually in them, such as in AA, Rift, Tera, etc.
This thread is flawed. WoW brought in 1billion in revenues last time I checked. You don't get those kind of money with 3m western subs and 7m chinese people who pay 1 cent per month.
This is one of the most profitable games in the gaming industry as a whole. Why would they go F2P? If there is a game which can stay P2P that is WoW.
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More or less this and I feel bad I fell for it.
Even with """only""" (enough " " ?) 3.5 mio subs they get about $50mio per month. If a game that makes this amount of cash goes f2p in the hope of getting more income then there are way too many whales out there and the whole theme "you have to work hard to be a 1%er" breaks down.
I see Mr. Aihoshi is again dreaming of F2P taking over the world. At least he didn't insult or belittled the readers this time.
Even down to 1mio subs WoW will still make more money with just another lazy sparkling pony than all your crappy asian botfests combined.
Can't believe i posted in a thread of this guy again.
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Something like that could be a good move, but I dont see ftp at 100... At least not yet.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
F2P has pretty much taken over the genre already. I don't see how that's dreaming or insulting if it's true. The only MMO's that i can think of, that have a sub exclusively, are ESO and FFXIV. All other MMO's have hybrid systems, with a combination of Sub, F2P, and B2P. As others have said, WoW is f2p with restricitions.
Its yet another poorly conceived and researched article from Richard Aioshi about WoW going Free to play. Its like he is obsessed.
I would not think wow will go f2p, if they ever then there trying to make quick money and aim for people wallet with there cash shop they have even worst.
But don't mean there not thinking about it and holding out for the right time.
And how hooking lockbox are, people will buy them in mass give them mass about of money more then sub game, there looking at the green.
+1, I am sick of the approach he uses in his articles.
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To OP, you can only dream of this. :-) Even with half or even less subs wow will be profitable. Yes, yes, ... F2P model would attract some players like flyes on shit :-), but they would not make money from them and could lose their fan base.
Truth however is for the first time I have stopped to play some expansion of Wow after single month. Enjoyed in full this time ... then suddenly happend as usually happen only after half year ... i lost interst to login back. Enjoying since Swtor and still having a blast, despite not happy with their expansion.
Wod on surface looks great, incredible story, ... but feels like BC2, ... garrisons ... great addition, fun, .. which removed half players from cities and environment ... no need to leave garrions nor for gahter, ah, bank, ... Further dumbing down in general of Wow did not help either.
So you are saying that the MMO which has had the largest number of subscriptions ever since it launched 10 years ago is not P2P but it is F2P? WoW is a P2P. 1-20 is a trial. Twist it how you want but no one but yourself will ever believe that WoW is F2P.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.