World of Warcraft is a huge video game. The developers at Blizzard are working on the third expansion, called Cataclysm, which will be arriving in the fall, with an open beta now testing the changes set to be made to the MMO.

The title has more than 11 million subscribers, making it the biggest in its genre. But recently, the trend seems to be for players to get free access to at least a portion of the MMOs they play and the company is thinking about that possibility for World of Warcraft.

Speaking to PC Gamer as part of a bigger report, which will appear in the next issue of the magazine, Tom Chilton, who is the lead designer working on World of Warcraft, addressed the rise of the free-to-play MMO, saying, “I feel like they're doing that to compete with other games that are on a similar subscriber level to what they were at. I imagine that when one of them went free to play it cannibalized some of the other subscribers. I can definitely imagine that being the case with World of Warcraft. If another game comes along and blows us away it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee. Or even further down the line, when we have another MMO out.”

Tom Chilton has clarified his statements by saying that the free-to-play move for World of Warcraft will not be happening any time soon. The main priority for the team working on the game seems to be delivering a lot more content for players who have reached the level cap and making the early game more accessible for new players who are just getting to see what the MMO has to offer.

Recently, Dungeons & Dragons Online was the first high profile MMO to drop the monthly fee with The Lord of the Rings Online from Turbine set to follow the model during the year.