Ohlen Says SWTOR F2P Not an Easy Transition

Written by: James Johnson (@WadeDMcGinnis) | June 19, 2012 12:55 pm

21 Comments

Many rumors have been bouncing from one star ship to the next with the possibility of SWTOR going F2P.

Even with the recent news of Bioware’s Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi making the comment about the team looking into F2P — then the article getting pulled — as well as a comment from EA President Frank Gibeau about possibly embracing the model down the road, many gamers find themselves confused.

Today PCGamer got an interview with James Ohlen to ask the question: can F2P work with SWTOR?

His answer:

“I think it can work for different games. It really depends on how you go with your game. Games that have been built to be free-to-play from the start definitely work out. Now, there have been games that weren’t free to play from the start and transferred over to becoming free to play that have worked as well. But it’s definitely not something that’s super easy to do.”

We have seen in the past other MMO’s pull substantially better numbers after transitioning from sub to F2P. And with SWTOR already planning on adding a unlimited-time trial for players looking to get their feet wet up to level 15, time will tell what Bioware and EA decide to do.

If the game did go to F2P would you go back or has your ship already jumped to light speed? Let us know in the comments below.

Ohlen Says SWTOR F2P Not an Easy Transition

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Max Lanctot

Personally I played SWTOR in the beta and never subbded up, Basically because i didn’t wanna pay to start over in WoW. If it went F2P, I’d be much more interested in picking it up, flaws with the game and all
http://twitter.com/KJohnston50 Kyle Johnston

The moment SWTOR goes F2P, I will be back in, because it will allow me to get into things more, and if I want something shiny, then I can get it. Not to mention, I don’t have $15 a month worth of time to play it, being as busy as I have with work and life in general. F2P is the future and will be what makes SWTOR viable to the market they are trying to seek.
- http://twitter.com/MrSunrock Sunrock
  
  You do realice that you will end up playing allot more then $15 a month if it goes F2P right?
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Brandon-Carpenter/100003272493739 Brandon Carpenter
    
    True
  - http://profile.yahoo.com/TONVMNTPMGKQMHJ2EX2XVJ5KKU Brendan Coffey
    
    I disagree with your point about paying more. It is solely your decision to spend the extra money. Not all F2P MMO’s are B2W, and in most cases if a F2P MMO is set up with a B2W cash shop those items are usually obtainable through playing the game, it just takes a bit of work. If SWTOR were to go F2P they would more likely take the route that LoTRO took and what GW2 is going to take and sell mostly aesthetic items, exp/hp pots, and the like. So really the greatest change would be the chance of there being a greater grind during leveling (which I wouldn’t see working out too well).
    - http://www.facebook.com/Jamandos Joshua Lee
      
      Sunrock isn’t implying Buy to win, he’s implying that IF BioWare goes F2P, the likelihood that most players will in fact spend more money on the game than a normal subscription fee.
      
      1 year of TOR sub is 180$.. That isn’t much in reality, what happens when TOR starts releasing items/micro content that looks and feel more KOTOR and less WoW? I would have personally paid for the KOTOR 1 robes instead of what they provided, so actually they’re horrible armor models in the game could be a benefit for pushing Micro trans.
      
      If you want to examine a F2P game that sells purely cosmetic items, Valve did extremely well with TF2. Hats, hats, hats.. they don’t need to put out new maps and content, just keep players looking cool.
  - jayremy
    
    Very sad that so many people don’t realize this or consider it. I kind of laugh, but I don’t because its rather sad, that people say “will not play if it has a sub” for any game.
    
    Really a sub isn’t what is hard, it’s shelling out the $40-60 initially before you get to play in depth and see all of what the game has to offer is what can suck if the game is bad.
    
    Even thinking about 50 cents a day isn’t a lot. Millions of people are subbed to WoW and I am sure millions at least hundreds or thousands pay monthly even if they don’t play or spend no more than a few hour for that time. Believe me my overly obsessive time on WoW forums I heard from so much of the types as well as those in game.
- Key Foster
  
  I dont think you mean this (I hope you dont lol), but how do you have TIME to play it if its f2p but no TIME to play it if it cost $15 a month? Wouldn’t the TIME you choose to play it still be the same? lol
  
  But to comment on the subject, im for f2p only if its done right, if they cant do it right then they should leave it alone.
  
  Im fine the way it is currently.
Joseph Gabrielli

Wish they would go FTP. I Would level up a knight for a months or two before GW2 comes out… Honestly from what i’ve seen in betas of other games, TOR with all its flaws is still better than Tera, and the Secret World.. EA needs to understand that if they go F2P they will be the only good game on the market till GW2, unless you don’t count WoW but I never do.
http://twitter.com/MrSunrock Sunrock

FTP sucks so hard I cant understand way every one things its so good. Does not every one understand its cheaper to play monthly subs then F2P games?! Yes let us pay $100 a month
for items that we don’t want or that makes us OP then $15 a month for a game experience that promote skill and play time instead of how mush money you earn in real life.
- http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis
  
  If F2P is done correctly then the option to pay more falls onto the shoulders of the consumer. If you had to buy every little thing then that becomes ridiculous but if it is like LoL, time over money is a nice way to work in a game
Revanhavoc

I can give you 120 million reasons why going free to play is long ways off for SWTOR. I’m sure the metrics do exist somewhere, but for the purpose of this discussion let’s just agree that subs make more money than F2P.

EA has a huge list of expenses past present and future that are associated with the SWTOR service and they need to make money off this project in the end, so expect them to milk the sub-based model for as long as it’s viable.
http://twitter.com/Luke_Malcolm Luke Malcolm

More people are inclined to pick up a mmo if its F2P. Let Rift rot in the P2P market an end up just like Warhammer and SWTOR can thrive with GW2 in the B2P/F2P market.
- http://twitter.com/MrSunrock Sunrock
  
  Warhammer is F2P dude.
Spatology

i would stop playing if the game went F2P….nty
gl123

Cool, I can save $15 a month !
- http://twitter.com/WadeDMcGinnis Wade D McGinnis
  
  My thoughts exactly!
Kagitaar

Schaff, you should probably put your glasses back on so you can read properly; it’s Ohlen not Olson.
http://twitter.com/lifensoul Steven Whiting

Stop being so anal with the Netflix advert. The bullshit marketing “This is an amazing service” is clearly said because it’s what the sponsor wants. So we’re never going to listen to the unbiased advert spill.
- Shallyn
  
  Arnold, the advertisement did it’s job, netflix is now stuck in your head whether you like it or not! Muahahahaaa Now please stop attacking the guy who’s just doing his job and go nerdrage in some pvp…’sall good man lol
hirogony12

not all f2p games are b2w take sto for example yes you can buy some items in the store they have but most of those items if not all are obtainable through just playing the game and no one has to buy anything so to day that a game going f2p is going to cost youa ridiculous amount of money is stupid and anyone who says different are naive and lacking knowledge of f2p mmo’s.

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