14 DAY TRIAL // Free-to-play MMO projects are all the rage these days, with developers reporting growing player numbers and higher revenue, but at least one leading MMO developer believes that subscriptions are still important.
Speaking during an interview with Eurogamer, Mike Morhaime, who is the president of Blizzard, stated, “I think it’s very expensive to make these games, especially if you’re expecting people to pay a monthly fee just to play the game. And so there are very few companies that can compete at that high level with those types of budgets. Definitely if you’re not charging anybody, they’re going to be a lot more forgiving about the experience they have.”
He says he understands why a number of developers are interested in making their games free-to-play in order to get the audience interested but he says that when it comes to games like World of Warcraft and the upcoming The Old Republic paying 15 dollars offers a superior experience that cannot be matched anywhere else.
Morhaime added, “I think that there’s an underlying, a fundamental assumption right now, that the less you charge, the more money you make. Which isn’t true. And it doesn’t necessarily make for a better game.”
World of Warcraft is still charging a monthly fee but there's an option for new players to download the game without paying anything and they can also spend as much time as they want in the game world before they reach level 20.
This might mean that at some point in the future, perhaps close to the launch of the new Titan MMO project, Blizzard might stop charging a subscription for World of Warcraft altogether, only asking players to get the latest expansion, either at retail or digitally.
Star Wars: The Old Republic, from BioWare and Electronic Arts, will be launched just before Christmas.