[Zenek]

I think that is obvious game will start as P2P. But after 1, max 2 years it will go in to F2P - as every theme park.

[Vile Samael]

I personally don't think this'll be F2P from the start. B2P, yes, there is a very strong possibility of that. But NCSoft can't really go straight from lots of P2P games to lots of F2P games without pissing off their player base, which is made up of lots of people who can't stand F2P and think it's some sort of magical failure path. So, yeah, that'd be a horrid business decision on their part, especially from what I've seen of the community here.

Going P2P WILL have it end up going F2P later though, so I dunno be patient I guess. Play something else. Hell, you might even forget about BnS and find another game you like that you can afford. Who knows. It's a big market.

[foxlight713]

Mizuki, on Dec 31, 2012 - 7:04 PM, said:

go get a part time job, issue fixed

The reason why SWTOR went free to play is because they failed to make the game succeed, they had less than one million subscribers at one point

Same thing happened to DC Universe, the game was dying

See WoW going free to play? no

True and from the quality that has been seen from Korean BnS hopefully the game will be successful.

Zenek, on Jan 01, 2013 - 6:22 AM, said:

I think that is obvious game will start as P2P. But after 1, max 2 years it will go in to F2P - as every theme park.

TBH if a game went f2p that fast that means the game itself is not very good and BnS from what I've seen and played is quite good and I hope the game won't go f2p for at least 5+ years or even never go f2p.

[Famfrit]

I think I'm still baffled about how long FFXI has been going for. Released in 2002-4 and has never gone F2P, they're even making a 5th expansion after they said they wouldn't.

[Treat]

I hope they'll go pay to play, and I hope they'll remain pay to play for a good while.
I would hate to see it go free to play and I hope it never will (how naive that may be).
And should they not be able to sustain the pay to play model I hope they'll do as The Secret World and just remove the subscription thus making it buy to play.
Free to play would make me sad, because the risk of the cash shop going too far is just too great.

[Mizuki]

TERA just went f2p in Korea but will remain p2p in Europe and North America

[Treat]

Well Gameforge haven't really said anything about their plans yet. They're avoiding the questions asked on the forums about whether it'll go free to play there or not.
They say they have big news here in January, and honestly it wouldn't surprise me if they announced free to play along with (finally) implementing the cash shop..

Talking about the European version here only.

[Shawnzy]

Mizuki, on Jan 02, 2013 - 7:17 PM, said:

TERA just went f2p in Korea but will remain p2p in Europe and North America

For now. Remember K-tera has been out for over a year longer than the western release. US Tera is already down to half the servers it started with, once it begins bleeding more players it will eventually follow the f2p path at some point.


Going F2P is the natural progression of MMO's these days, anyone who thinks BnS will be some miraculous exception is highly deluded.

BnS will eventually become a f2p title, this is NCsoft we're talking about here people. This isn't a question of "if" it will go f2p, it's a question of "when". And that when is directly related to how successful or unsuccessful BnS does when it releases in the west.

[Zenek]

Shawnzy, on Jan 03, 2013 - 4:05 PM, said:

Going F2P is the natural progression of MMO's these days, anyone who thinks BnS will be some miraculous exception is highly deluded.

I would call it the natural death process of WoW-clones/theme parks.

[Shawnzy]

Zenek, on Jan 03, 2013 - 4:51 PM, said:

I would call it the natural death process of WoW-clones/theme parks.

Considering that a majority of mmo's that have transitioned to f2p have been more commercially successful than sometimes even their initial releases I'd say it's the opposite of a "death process".

All MMO's are "dying", they all have a lifespan that dwindles down, even the all powerful WoW is succumbing to it as well. You can bet that WoW will change things up once it's financial situation is in jeopardy.

Plus, this is not a phenomenon exclusive to "wow-clones" and "theme parks" as you say, and even if it was, it'd just add to the fact that BnS will eventually walk that path because guess what, BnS easily falls within the purview of a "wow-clone" and is certainly a "them park" mmo.

[Tashigi]

Technically WOW is F2P to an extend. You can literally do several dungeons and experience a great deal of the game by doing their "trial" which allows you to level to 20 and keep playing non-stop as a Lv 20.

[Shinaji]

It'll start P2P then run down to F2P later. Pay attention to the market, P2P just isn't working anymore, fewer people are willing to accept a P2P model. IT'll work at the start then slowly dwindle and after a few decent years 2 or 3 at most, it'll go F2P. Unlike WoW all these new games aren't going uncontested long enough for people to become so invested in them that they don't want to leave.
Only WoW can pull off P2P anymore.
Watch the market.

Also how many times must we have this topic?
I'm feeling like I should close it.

P.S. *Dreams

I'ma edit that, it's giving me cancer.

[Sunny]

I hope it goes the route of GW2..

You buy the game once and can play it forever. However.. they include a nice item mall with tons of cosmetic changes and other minor perks.

I'm getting a new computer, so I plan on maxing the graphics, and for once, I will enjoy the art in the game. That means I will want tons of cosmetic changes, so I hope they are included.

[Zenek]

foxlight713, on Jan 02, 2013 - 6:14 PM, said:

TBH if a game went f2p that fast that means the game itself is not very good and BnS from what I've seen and played is quite good and I hope the game won't go f2p for at least 5+ years or even never go f2p.

Maybe... but I do not have much hope. Maybe because I waited 3 years for Tera... game what has proven to be epic fail.

Shawnzy, on Jan 03, 2013 - 7:47 PM, said:

Considering that a majority of mmo's that have transitioned to f2p have been more commercially successful than sometimes even their initial releases I'd say it's the opposite of a "death process".

All MMO's are "dying", they all have a lifespan that dwindles down, even the all powerful WoW is succumbing to it as well. You can bet that WoW will change things up once it's financial situation is in jeopardy.

Plus, this is not a phenomenon exclusive to "wow-clones" and "theme parks" as you say, and even if it was, it'd just add to the fact that BnS will eventually walk that path because guess what, BnS easily falls within the purview of a "wow-clone" and is certainly a "them park" mmo.

Succesfull? Number of players growing for few months just to drop players again. And there is our commercially success: http://www.newzoo.co...pportunities-2/
47% income is from few P2P games, while hundreds of F2P generate only 53% global income.

All MMO "dying"?.. interesting...
Ultima still alive
EVE still alive
WoW still alive

Path of "wow-clones" and "theme parks" worked once single time - WoW. There is no other successful example from his genre. But we will see... But I predict F2P after 1-2 years.

[Gender Infection]

Itachi.Uchiha, on Dec 31, 2012 - 6:03 AM, said:

First of all if I don't pay for a game I don't see myself as a real fan.

Is that a problem? Not everyone has to be a "real fan". Being a "real fan" doesn't make you better than other people.

I have played Tera a bit and I haven't spent a single cent of my own money on it aside from $5 for a copy of the game. I've loaded up on enough Chronoscrolls to make it 2 years from now free. And even Tera has a "discoverer mode" now. Meaning you can play for free until level 30.

Pay to play is kind of going the way of the dinosaur overall. Almost every MMORPG is free to play now. And pay to play diehards don't seem to have much arguing for their cause other than elitism towards people who don't want pay per month to pay for a game and tired excuses like "well it is worth the money because five months from now it isn't the same game." Yes it is. MMORPGs are so static and get so little content updates in any short period of time that it takes years for them to accumulate even a decent amount of wealth. The amount of content that is your average paid DLC patch. The game you could buy with the money you spend on the average MMORPG subscription would get you 40x the content. And really would have another game's worth of content. MMORPG don't do that.

Heck, I bought Tales of Graces f once, and I got over 200 hours worth of gameplay from it that was much less repetitive than any MMORPG I've played. And when I compare the offline RPGs I have bought and played the online ones, I've sunk more money into online ones. And I see no reason why pay to play is even so viable anymore when something the scale of Guild Wars 2 is free to play. Subscriptions aren't fun or convenient. And I don't see that they make the games any better. And it isn't working anymore because customers are sick of it.

I'm sorry, but I don't buy the reasoning for pay to play other than the "developers need money" argument.