Blizzard Free-to-Play Game Rumor Resurfaces

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wildkitten

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I can see a free to play Blizzard title...
"Buy Kotick Kredits! Upgrade that 3 slot bag with only 100 Kredits! Need armor? No problem, only 500 Kredits! Need more than white armor? Get your tier set for only 5000 Kredits!"

If F2P didn't already have the reputation for being the opposite of free, I am sure Bobby Kotick will firmly cement that rep.
 
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Blizzard should test this though. Make WoW free to play for 6 months and see what happens to the subscription base. If they still loose then its game fetigue and if it grows or stablilize it is market demand.
 

knowom

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[citation][nom]LORD_ORION[/nom]It is going to be DOTA Blizzard....They want to get people on Bnet to upsell them[/citation] Agreed was just about to say I think it's going to be DOTA Blizzard. Blizzard are copy cats that try to refine what they know works and cater it towards the largest audience of players and the fact is F2P has been proven to work well for LoL in fact HoN even switched to a F2P because it's obvious it works.
 

knowom

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[citation][nom]wildkitten[/nom]I can see a free to play Blizzard title..."Buy Kotick Kredits! Upgrade that 3 slot bag with only 100 Kredits! Need armor? No problem, only 500 Kredits! Need more than white armor? Get your tier set for only 5000 Kredits!"If F2P didn't already have the reputation for being the opposite of free, I am sure Bobby Kotick will firmly cement that rep.[/citation] I haven't payed a dime for league of legends, but if I wanted to I certainly could and I don't feel at a disadvantage.

F2P gets a bad reputation because of how most game developers choose to set it up. It shouldn't adversely affect game play and in League of Legends plain and simple it doesn't.
 

maxwebb

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i still think f2p *could* work for companies worried more about revenue than producing a well-liked game. as long as you continually build new quest-packs to sell, there will always be a profit. if worried about financing the maintenance of a game, electricity bandwidth etc, just simply introduce in-game advertising. personally if i were developing, i'd even add extras like going to an inn, talking to the innkeeper, and ordering a pizza so gamers could get their daily food intake without ever having to leave the virtual world... except to answer the door.
 

alidan

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[citation][nom]knowom[/nom]I haven't payed a dime for league of legends, but if I wanted to I certainly could and I don't feel at a disadvantage. F2P gets a bad reputation because of how most game developers choose to set it up. It shouldn't adversely affect game play and in League of Legends plain and simple it doesn't.[/citation]
F2P=/=P2W
 

kartu

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[citation][nom]whysobluepandabear[/nom]Blizzard, even after losing millions of subs, STILL makes BILLIONS per year. I don't see them wanting to stop that anytime soon.....[/citation]
It can't be "billions". 10 million subscribers, ca 100 $ per year of income => 1 billion $. Plus "bonus stuff", minus roughly 300 million $ for servers and staff. (they mentioned it cost that much once, maybe figure is lower now)

So around 1 billion, not "billions". Never been "billions". Still pretty damn good for 8 year old game.
 

kathiki

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there is NO such thing as free to play..... it is free to try... that is just that. In order to have access to the whole game every single company that features the f2p model will always force you to pay some money one way or another to proceed in the game. You need some money spent to advance to higher levels, for content like end game raiding etc etc. Some companies now endorse the new idea of limited inventory space unless of course you unlock it by paying. Every online game needs money for maintenance.

Then of course come the usual high premium items only obtainable through real money spending. Devs can be so very innovative in what they create every time to make you drool over in order to buy..
 
There is no need to pay another dime to have equal capabilities as other players in Guild Wars. You can buy more storage, or appearance and/or name changes, but the content is the same. That's F2P.
 

memadmax

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Kartu, you know nothing...
WoW is only 6 and a half years old...
11 million(supposedly) at its peak @ $15 a month = 165,000,000 a month * 12 months = 1,980,000,000 * 6 years = 11,880,000,000.....

and of course... blizzard never says how many subs they truely have... rumors and speculation are based off of so called WoW census data... which is inaccurate...
 

cronik93

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[citation][nom]Fokissed[/nom]Unfortunately F2P is P2W in many situations and ruins F2P's reputation.[/citation]


Only Asian MMO's and EA FTP titles.
 

nisallik

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[citation][nom]memadmax[/nom]Kartu, you know nothing...WoW is only 6 and a half years old... 11 million(supposedly) at its peak @ $15 a month = 165,000,000 a month * 12 months = 1,980,000,000 * 6 years = 11,880,000,000.....and of course... blizzard never says how many subs they truely have... rumors and speculation are based off of so called WoW census data... which is inaccurate...[/citation]

Not exactly, around half of those subscribers are from Asia and they pay no where close to $15 a month. ;p
 

Crush3d

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[citation][nom]cronik93[/nom]Only Asian MMO's and EA FTP titles.[/citation]

Also factor in the sales for the actual game + all the expansions. You are looking at a considerable amount of cash.
 

spookyman

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SOE has dont this a number of times with Everquest. Even gave previous account holders a chance to get their accounts up to date with the latest expansion. It was a nice for us older gamers.
 

spookyman

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[citation][nom]memadmax[/nom]Kartu, you know nothing...WoW is only 6 and a half years old... 11 million(supposedly) at its peak @ $15 a month = 165,000,000 a month * 12 months = 1,980,000,000 * 6 years = 11,880,000,000.....and of course... blizzard never says how many subs they truely have... rumors and speculation are based off of so called WoW census data... which is inaccurate...[/citation]

Actually WoW is approaching its 8th year now.
 

RabidFace

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[citation][nom]spookyman[/nom]Actually WoW is approaching its 8th year now.[/citation]
You beat me to it :)

But I think a F2P, dumbed down WoW has been a long time coming. Will be interesting if it is true. But I could care less, I got out of WoW before the first expansion before it started eating at my soul ;)

But, I have a theory on their project "Titan". I think it could be a Blizzard DOTA. Why else would Blizzard file a lawsuit again Valve for use of DOTA? No Blizzard, the name doesn't belong to you. It belongs to the person(s) who created the mod that just happened to be used in conjunction with WC3 or whatever game.
 

jaber2

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Spaceballs the move figured this out long time ago, its all about merchendizing that's where the money is made, F2P is a model every publisher should consider, the model has shown that it is a great option, plus if you can tie it into other game it would just be gravy.
 

Soda-88

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blizzard dota will be sc2 custom map, not a standalone game... and i highly doubt they'd include it into ther f2p sc2 starter edition because it'd make sc2 go the same way warcraft 3 went, majority of the game owners didn't even know what actual warcraft 3 is, they just had it to play dota - custom map made by icefrog
 

wildkitten

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[citation][nom]knowom[/nom]I haven't payed a dime for league of legends, but if I wanted to I certainly could and I don't feel at a disadvantage. F2P gets a bad reputation because of how most game developers choose to set it up. It shouldn't adversely affect game play and in League of Legends plain and simple it doesn't.[/citation]
Do you think a game that is made by a company under Bobby Kotick's leadership will choose to set it up the right way?

Yes, it CAN be done the right way. No, Kotick won't be the one to allow it to be done the right way. And if Blizzard people stand up to him, he will do to them what he did to Infinity Ward.
 

wildkitten

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[citation][nom]memadmax[/nom]Kartu, you know nothing...WoW is only 6 and a half years old... 11 million(supposedly) at its peak @ $15 a month = 165,000,000 a month * 12 months = 1,980,000,000 * 6 years = 11,880,000,000.....and of course... blizzard never says how many subs they truely have... rumors and speculation are based off of so called WoW census data... which is inaccurate...[/citation]
Actually your math is wrong.

Half of WoW's subs half been in Asia with roughly a third of all subs in China. Asia pays a different type of sub scheme as they pay as they play and that comes out to a lot less than $15/mo. In China, Blizzard makes even less and has to split that with Netease who runs WoW in China.

Even in a lot of other regions they don't make $15/mo. Brazillian players pay about $8/mo. So overall, much less than half pays what you think they do.
 
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