ElectricSistaHood

If you wanted to play MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, but you weren’t included in the beta, next month is your chance to get a taste.

The MMO landscape has changed incredibly since the days of Everquest and World of Warcraft– two games that now offer free content, BTW. Offering a subscription based game, even if it is based on a pop culture phenomenon, is a hard road to go down. Star Trek Online tried it. DC Universe Online tried it. Both are now F2P.

So how can Star Wars: The Old Republic hold on? They are trying. In addition to the free-to-play up to level 15, they are adding new content to keep their current players happy, while improving upon existing elements. SW: TOR has lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers and had a $300+ million budget. At this point, they still are holding onto 1 million+ subscribers, so The Old Republic is still attracting quite a crowd, but a subscription-based MMO should attract a WoW-sized crowd, should they not?

So where is Star Wars: The Old Republic headed. I think it’s a good bargain to say that a) it will not shut down and b) it will ultimately go free to play, and survive for many years on that model.