In WildStar the rumor mill is brewing. An anonymous source now suggests that the title will transition from a subscription model to a free-to-play model in August.
Yesterday, the numbers from NCSoft were released. They looked anything but rosy for the SF-MMO WildStar. The game has already fallen below the level of City of Heroes at the time NCSoft shut down the superhero MMO.
In this mood, a source with explosive information appeared in the WildStar subreddit. The source claims to be a “WildStar employee” and asserts that they have proven their identity to the mods.
The source provides the following information:
- In August, WildStar is supposed to transition to a “freemium” model. Paying players will then receive XP buffs, more character slots, and similar perks. It will not be pay-to-win. Microtransactions are expected to come later. This change is supposed to be made public “very soon”.
- In the long term, WildStar plans to work closely with Steam. They want to become “THE MMO” on the Steambox, and WildStar is expected to be pre-installed on all Steamboxes. In January, they hosted Steam. WildStar is supposed to come to Steam before the China release – the timeframe is expected to be late 2015 or early 2016.
- For the China release , some adjustments still need to be made, especially the “The Strain” zones must be revised due to cultural practices, so assets showing bones, blood or oversized teeth or eyeballs need to be redone.
- Speaking of blood, the team at Carbine is bleeding heavily, “developers are leaving every week,” they say. The team has shrunk significantly. There is an uncertain atmosphere. However, they are looking for replacements for those who have left.
- They plan to continue delivering new content every three months. A range of features are planned, but due to staff turnover, they may not be able to implement all of them.
Mein MMO thinks: This should all be taken with caution. However, there are indications from another source that WildStar is indeed supposed to come to Steam as a free-to-play title. This is also not official, but comes from the Steam database.
Otherwise, the assessment from the anonymous source sounds plausible. To what extent their identity was “proven” or not is hard to say. Whether this is simply a “good assessment” based on known or presumed facts, or whether it really is an “insider” speaking out … is difficult to determine. US MMO sites are reporting on this in any case. The thread is receiving a lot of attention on Reddit.
