World of Warcraft could 'end up being free-to-play'
Despite the caterwauling of a few internet trolls, World of Warcraft has yet to go free-to-play and remains the dominant subscription-based MMO in the world of gaming. But current success doesn't guarantee future success, and game director Tom Chilton is well aware of the shifting tides when it comes to new and existing MMOs.
In an interview with NowGamer, Chilton talked a bit about whether the subscription model is dead (it isn't) and whether or not World of Warcraft will go free-to-play (it might).
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.
Chilton continued by expressing that he believes subscription MMOs can still work as long as devs keep content coming to players on a regular basis and make it worth that monthly credit card charge.
I do think that as time goes on subscription MMOs might evolve toward becoming a little bit more dynamic and making sure that within a month time span it feels like new events and new episodes happen to keep it fresh.
Quite a few new-ish MMOs have launched with subscriptions only to turn free-to-play within a few months; we'll get a chance to see how the sub model fares again when The Elder Scrolls Online hits the market in 2014.
