Old Republic Pricing to Have “Twists”
Last week at Game Developer’s Conference, BioWare General Manager Dr. Ray Muzyka spoke to gaming blog Kotaku about the pricing plan for their upcoming MMO. While he clarified that they have not announced anything regarding their payment model, he commented that it would “be more of the traditional business model with maybe some twists as well.”
It has been hinted at in the past that The Old Republic would be microtransaction-based, or at least have microtransactions as a part of the payment model. Could this be the twist Muzyka is referring to? Most MMOs that are microtransaction-based are free to play, but it is reasonable to assume that TOR will have a subscription.
Muzyka went on. “With Star Wars: The Old Republic, we haven’t announced anything yet. But what we’re striving to do, to clarify what I said earlier, is to make sure the fans and the audience that we’re trying to reach feel they are getting something they understand and feel that it is a good value for their money — and feel that there is a way they actually want to engage in the experience, both in how they play it and how they pay for it. That’s our high-level goal.”
What kind of payment model would you like to see for TOR?
Revisiting Microtransactions
Whether The Old Republic will be microtransaction-based or not has been a fairly debated topic since the EA CEO’s slip up and the statement being later retracted. Such a big misunderstanding must have something to it, whether SWTOR was originally going to be microtransaction-based and had the idea scrapped later, or will be microtransaction-based but EA didn’t want it out in the open just yet, is unsure. In any case, there would be some advantages to microtransactions, particularly for the more casual gamer who does not see a monthly subscription as a wise investment if they can’t invest the time needed to make it a worthy purchase.
Read about some advantages at TheOldRepublicForum.com and let us know what payment model you’d like to see.
Whoops! EA retracts CEO Riccitiello’s statement on TOR’s payment model
In an update to a previous news post, Electronic Arts has said CEO John Riccitiello’s statement on The Old Republic’s business model was based on a ‘misunderstanding’. Riccitiello had originally commented that TOR will be ‘microtransaction-based’, which is quite different from the traditional MMO payment model based around monthly payments.
It’s surprising that Riccitiello would make such an obviously important statement without checking with the rest of the EA brass. Most of the speculation as to why usually attributes it to just another way TOR is going to stand out from the rest of the MMO crowd and that makes sense, given how much attention BioWare has given to the story and the characters. But for now, it seems that fans will be left to speculate on just how much they’ll have to pay until February, when this issue is hopefully cleared up.
Read the updated Shacknews post here.
SWTOR to be Microtransaction based
ShackNews has reported that Star Wars: The Old Republic will feature an uncommon form of payment. Instead of being subscription-based like most MMOs are, paying a flat rate each month, EA has classified The Old Republic as a “microtransaction-based” title.
EA CEO John Riccitiello spoke on the matter today. “We are continuing to stick to the plan relative to building out our direct-to-consumer models which include microtransactions and subscriptions… The recent launch of Warhammer is a great example of that.”
