Star Wars: The Old Republic
Genre: Themepark MMORPG | Release date: December 20, 2011 | Initial payment model: Buy-to-play with subscription | Change to free-to-play occurred on: November 15, 2012 | Website: Star Wars The Old Republic
What payment model did the game start with? Bioware released Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) on December 20, 2012. To play, you had to buy the MMORPG and subscribe.
At that time, free-to-play had already become almost established. Bioware noticed this very quickly.
Why was the change to free-to-play made? Although many bought the MMORPG and subscribed, the number of subscribers halved just six months after release and continued to decline.
Bioware had to act and launched the free-to-play version less than a year after the start of SWTOR.
What happened to the MMORPG after the change? SWTOR does not have the same number of players it had at the beginning, but there is still a sufficiently large fan base playing the title.
Bioware continues to release new content, although the gaps between the updates are getting longer. The MMORPG is now even playable on Steam, where it is very well received.
However, in the years following the transition, SWTOR was still regarded as “yet another” success for BioWare and EA.
The free-to-play change breathed new life into SWTOR – even though many criticized the free-to-play model, it greatly encouraged obtaining benefits or a premium account.
