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?

MMORPG reported on an interview posted in gameindustry.biz. Phil Elliot interviewed Darrell Rodriguez, who is the president of LucasArts.  The question of the business model for TOR came up, and Rodriguez replied briefly.  Mr. Elliot expanded on that question in this article. Rodriguez’ answer? Decidedly vague.  Saying “we’re looking at it all” is a non-answer.  I don’t think we’ll know how we’re going to pay to play until much closer to the game release date.

Speaking to GDC, BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk has told gaming site VG247 that The Old Republic’s business model will depend on what the industry standard is at the time.

“The way we look at these things is, ‘What’s the standard at the time?’ Obviously we’re not quite done yet. We’ve got a lot of work left to do. But we’ll be very conscious of how the market looks.”

Both Zeschuk and his partner Ray Muzyka stressed that the business model has not yet been announced. But it looks like you can expect a similar subscription fee of around US$15 if the current standard remains the same by the time the game is released.

Old Republic pricing will depend on MMO “standard,” says BioWare [VG247, thanks leXX]

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.