Wildstar
Genre: Themepark MMORPG | Release date: June 3, 2014 | Initial payment model: Buy-to-play with subscription | Change to free-to-play occurred on: September 29, 2015 | Website: No website available
What payment model did the game start with? Wildstar was released in summer 2014. Actually at a time when subscriptions played hardly a role in the MMORPG sector. Only established MMORPGs like WoW or Final Fantasy XIV could still afford the model.
Nevertheless, the developers tried their luck as they hoped to achieve enough revenue with a stable player base.
Why was the change to free-to-play made? The plan didn’t work out, so already six months after release, discussions began about free-to-play plans. The MMORPG needed more players and aimed to lower the entry barrier. Hence, the change occurred in September 2015.
What happened to the MMORPG after the change? Free-to-play did not help Wildstar become successful. The player numbers briefly increased at the transition but then sank further.
Ultimately, Wildstar had to close its doors on November 28, 2018. The remaining few players were not enough to cover the MMORPG’s costs.
Content is more important than the model
Conclusion: As you can see, changing to a free-to-play model can definitely help an MMORPG. Many games on the list had a good run after their free-to-play transition and would surely have been discontinued long ago without the change, such as Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Lord of the Rings Online, TERA, Rift, or Star Trek Online.
However, all these MMORPGs are now facing the passage of time, and the games are no longer being developed as they were at their peaks.
Sometimes, though, the free-to-play transition doesn’t help at all. If the games are not properly developed after the free-to-play transition, only a quick, short boom occurs that quickly fades away as seen with The Secret World Legends or WildStar. These games were not granted a trend reversal.
MMORPGs do occasionally die off. We present the 7 that died the fastest in an article.
