When Will BioWare Flip The Free-To-Play Switch?


Written by: (Twitter @winterinformal - ) | August 6, 2012 12:00 pm

When Will BioWare Flip The Free-To-Play Switch?
61 Comments

Welcome to this week’s installment of Over/Under, where you, the GAMEBREAKER fans, get to show off your prognostic powers and see if you can outguess the staff or even the people who make games themselves!

The rules are simple: we’ll offer you a quantifiable number, or perhaps a date, and ask you to predict whether the answer will be over or under our stated value.

Then, when we know the answer — typically within a few weeks or months — we’ll make a post to let you know how you did!

Today’s question is:

When will Star Wars: The Old Republic go free-to-play?

This is a question we’ve half-jokingly considered for Over/Under for months. But now that it’s a confirmed reality, we can do so without invoking the wrath of the fans (or BioWare).

The only time frame we’ve got is “fall,” which runs from Sept. 21 to Dec. 20, so we’ll set our pivot date right in the middle of those two extremes.

Our Over/Under target is November 5.

  • If you think SWTOR will go free-to-play after November 5, post OVER in a comment below.
  • If you think SWTOR will go free-to-play on or before November 5, post UNDER in a comment below.

Yoda and his “it is the future I see” malarkey need not apply.


  • XvShadow

    Under :D

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Max-Lanctot/653378742 Max Lanctot

    Under ^_^

  • http://twitter.com/inkthedink INKS

    Over. Nov 19-20 is my guess.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Mac/777995513 Alex Mac

    Slightly over. Nov. 12th ish.

  • Jado Cast

    Over and now I will maybe, just maybe give it a try.  Wait, who am I kidding, I’ll be too busy playing GW2.  XD

  • Sketch323

    Over

  • http://www.facebook.com/Terinn23 Mike Price

    I think it will be under and it re-launch on Oct 23!  About one month after MOP launch and some players start to lose interest in the new Shiny!

  • Sketch323

    Over almost absolutely, looking at DCUO and LoTRO’s patterns (internal and external testing, especially in LoTRO’s case, and pushing dates back) It seems to take a while for them to put in the infrastructure.

  • http://www.facebook.com/stradus.woods Stradus Woods

    Over, going to be some time December 20th

  • http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr

    Over, implementing their f2p model may takes some time. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Carl-Sherman-Allison/100001026518734 Carl Sherman Allison

    defo under :D

  • Jant0n

    Under, I’m gonna say mid October.

  • http://twitter.com/Maffo_ Robert Rydell

    Under 29 september!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Caliolo/100003765889295 Robert Caliolo

    Dec 13th, 1 year anni relaunch

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kevin-Raymond-Macduff/660827451 Kevin Raymond Macduff

    September 25th

  • http://twitter.com/The_Bru Jason Hendley

    Under.  Around MoP release date.

  • http://twitter.com/cecilandblues Tony

    Pretty sure all the FAQ’s say November, but don’t give a date. So gotta be over

  • Draugmahl

    Under…GW2, MoP….has to be under.

  • http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

    Over.  I think they would like to be able to say they had subs for an entire year.

  • http://twitter.com/cyanpill cyanpill

    Under! September 25 would be interesting… I doubt they can make august 25th :P

  • http://twitter.com/MrSquishei Jeremie Quek

    … Double post.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeremie-Quek/714101707 Jeremie Quek

    Over totally because Mike B said under.

  • Dean Scott

    I’ll say over, probably around dec. 20.  

  • http://twitter.com/Nin3r Richard Martin

    More MikeB dancing please!!

    I’m pretty sure I’ve read somewhere it was November, so if anything, the first week of November seems very likely to me.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bruce-Fauble/1466377126 Bruce Fauble

    Over

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brandon-Davis/100000286723150 Brandon Davis

    im torn, i want it to be under (cause i want to play) but ill say over
    1) my bday is hte 17th, so bday present from biooware?
    2) mikeb said under

  • Melissa Waldrup-Old

    I believe it will be under so as to grab the WoW crowd before MoP.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Willi-Enderle/1668850948 Willi Enderle

    over

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Bergevin-Jr/1393526370 Jim Bergevin Jr

    Actually, in EA’s investor call on July 31st, Frank Gibeau said that the new “pricing plan” would go into effect in November. I would say that they are either going to implement on Nov. 1 or on the 15th.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=515149054 James Seiboth

    Under

  • Lediath

    *** UNDER *** October 25th, one month after MoP.

  • brianadfl

    lol! bologna sandwich

  • Blioux

    Over. BioWare has shown unable to do anything correctly.

  • Ravenstorm

    Over easy! hmmm

  • Thorghan

    Under.
    November 1st. Start of the 3rd quarter of fiscal year 2013.

  • Hicks64

    Under.

  • http://www.facebook.com/tudor.simu.9 Tudor Simu

    over

  • http://twitter.com/Succorbenothi Christopher

    Ah Mike B, the only person i enjoy watching on here anymore. Oh, and under

  • ArsenicSundae

    Under.

  • http://twitter.com/RobHunyadi Rob Hunyadi

    Under.  They will rush it and do it wrong just like they have done for everything in the game.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/jason.harrigan.92 Jason Harrigan

    Over

  • http://profiles.google.com/gl7676 gl 7676

    Cartel coins -> Under.

    The rest of F2P -> Over.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1339406775 Matthew Riddle

    Over.

    They won’t release in September because of GW2 fan excitement.
    They won’t release in October because of MoP fan excitement.
    November is a good month because fans from both big releases have gotten over the honeymoon period, especially the WoW players.

    But 12/12/12 would be pretty epic.

  • http://www.hhportals.com/izhelara Lash

    Under, since 25 is the new trend i say 25 of October.

  • http://twitter.com/MattstaNinja Mattsta

    Under. I think they are going to switch over as soon as they can.  If they already made the announcement I think they are already pretty far into development for this, and there is still a month and a half until fall starts.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Burst/100002070336564 Daniel Burst

    I think it will be sometime late September or early October, because Bioware will likely want to tie this into Game Update 1.4, what is slated for that time frame. They definately want to get this in by the Christmas rush, so at the latest, early November.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Marcelo-Linhares/100000041974498 Marcelo Linhares

    Constructive post:

    AH Right in your face SWTOR. You IP block your “worldwide” sales and I decided not to play (even though it was easiable bypassable).
    GW2 is the second comming.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Byrne/100001642673542 Michael Byrne

    Easy one. Over. Frank Gibeau said on the EA earnings call that,

     ”Our plan now is to pivot and provide a two-tiered pricing plan which will make the game more accessible and grow the audience.  The new pricing will go into effect in November.” He went on to explain that Tier One was the subscription and Tier Two was the F2P model.

    The Standard Box pricing at 14.99 with the free 30 day subscription is already in effect on their site as promised. 
    -Magicman

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=862175353 Gavin Morgan

    Over a barrel.

  • http://twitter.com/GWAMM Littering in Geneva

    under

  • http://twitter.com/GWAMM Littering in Geneva

    under

  • http://twitter.com/Hellmetal789 Mark w

    under 

  • crothcipt

    hmmm… I’m gonna say a few days under.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/TMSDSHDOZXYGNZREXRS5BHVV2E JaeB

    This is the easiest question to answer… Def over, swtor has so far never put out anything on time so why start now… Fall pfft wishful thinking… more like early winter of 2012

  • http://www.facebook.com/rodiercz Vit Novotny

    I think over..   but totally in november. 
    I hope they will add (if not already)  hires texture pack.  Truth is, game was ugly at launch and badly optimised.  It had graphic like LOTRO and that is  6 years old game.  bad texture quality..

  • InFame Death1

    Under
     

  • lacatus Nicusor

    hei you,lotro has a good texture so shut up,I play lotro because I am a big fan of lotr,and I hope swtor f2p will appear before 5 NOV so ”under”

  • patrick.kershaw

    over

  • http://twitter.com/Kaos131 Nathan Small

    over

  • Revanhavoc

    I’m only slightly cheating by finding this hit and posting on it 2 months later.

    But I will say over since it’s late October. SWTOR doesn’t hit their public release date targets. And I think many of the recent departures from Bioware and specifically Bioware Austin have diminished the overall morale, so things aren’t moving quickly at this point.

    I am personally looking forward to the F2P re-launch. Been playing the Free Trial and I’m starting to find again the things I used to love about the game.

  • revan luxa

    Over, what do I win? :P

    I guess posting on November 5th is cheating anyway…I loved SWTOR when up until I finished all 8 class storys. I just couldn’t get into the end game though I wish the game and its fans all the best.

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