Following the resounding success of Dungeons & Dragons Online once it went free-to-play, other companies have been adopting the model, with fellow competitor Lord of the Rings Online being the most recent convert. Now the company whose success got everyone into the MMO market in the first place says it’s watching the trend with some interest. Blizzard Lead Designer Tom Chilton spoke to PC Gamer about the future of World of Warcraft’s business model.
Chilton feels that free-to-play is a new way to compete when a title’s subscription numbers cannot keep it afloat. “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,” he said. “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.”
Blizzard has long experimented with different business models as the market allows. In Russia for instance, Starcraft II’s episodes are further broken down and sold in monthly installments to combat piracy. In Korea, World of Warcraft is a digital download-only with a subscription fee and subscribers can also play StarCraft II for free. Even in Western markets the company has expanded their offerings, allowing players to change their characters for a small fee and purchase new in-game addons like a remote auction house, new pets, and new mounts.
For the time being, World of Warcraft is still the big dog in the market, so don’t expect it to go free-to-play anytime soon. “We’re not spending a lot of time thinking about it. It’s not something that’s a reality for us in the near future,” Chilton said.
