Blizzard has revealed the company could launch World of Warcraft as a free-to-play title in the future.
WOW lead designer Tom Chilton revealed the plans while speaking to PC Gamer stating the rise in western free-to-play MMO’s has caught the eye of Blizzard.
He said, “at some point, it may not make sense for us to have a subscription fee.”
Chilton said if another MMO comes and takes the spotlight from WOW then the company would have to make it free just to compete. He even suggested the subscription fee could get scrapped in the future if Blizzard ever launches a new MMO.
In the last year we have Turbine re-launch Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online as free-to-play titles as well as EA releasing a free online version of Company of Heroes.
However Chilton believed these moves have been done to compete with rivals of their games rather than trying to knock WOW off the top-spot.
“I feel like they’re doing that to compete with other games that are on a similar subscriber level to what they were at,” he explained.
“I imagine that when one of them went free to play it cannibalized some of the other subscribers. I can definitely imagine that being the case with World of Warcraft.”
Before you get all giddy and begin planning a brand new character for when WOW goes free Chilton has warned gamers the move wont come anytime soon saying Blizzard isn’t “spending a lot of time thinking about it.”
However with the impressively looking Star Wars: The Old Republic coming soon and gaining support and momentum quicker than Usain Bolt, Blizzard may want to start spending a little more time thinking about a free-to-play World of Warcraft.
