I’m not asking this question for a very short term.

There is a trend, that those once successful B2P or subscribe to play games, after they have run a couple of years, they eventually turn to F2B games. The reason is obvious, the games have become too old to attract new players, and the old players keep leaving due to the lack of new content. However those don’t kill a game directly, there is still value to exploit. By making a B2P game F2P, the company can keep old players and interest new comers. That has been practiced by a lot of games.

It has been nearly 8 years since World of Warcraft firstly released. Although impressive enough, it still has one of the biggest player base among all the MMOs, yet it is losing them fast. As Blizzard is siphoning its development team to the Titan Project, it is very likely that Mists of Pandaria is the last expansion that World of Warcraft ever has. When there is no more expansion to be added to the game, there will be no new purchases or the point to subscribe any longer.

Anyway this conversion is not going to happen any time soon, since there is no Cash Shop features can be applied at the moment, apart from the pet/mount shop. In a long term future, say about three or four years, what is it gonna be? What do you think or hope?

Any game with 10 million payed subscribers 8 yrs later is not going F2P or B2P anytime in the near or far future.

Btw your facts are completely wrong. Blizzard has announced no less then THREE more expansions for WoW.

Its not losing subs, its already back up to 10 million.

Assuming Blizzard doesn't do something royally stupid, WoW will probably no convert to an F2P for a very long while.

Although, one should factor in the potential problem of WoW simply not being profitable anymore to the point that whoever is above Blizzard (I'm not sure who exactly) decides to pull the plug, even if there is a sizeable base left.

It's been sometime since we had a poll on this. So yes lets have another. After all things might have changed in the last couple of days........

Come on, wow ftp/p2p, wow dying...........z

I would think that at the end of WOWs life whenever that is they will just shut the servers down..

its a long way off and by then the f2p bubble would ahve bust and everything will be back to p2p anyway.. :)

Originally posted by AegisSaga
This must be a troll thread. He seems pretty sure MoP is the last expansion, yet Blizzard already announced at least 2 more.

i said "very likely". i am not "pretty sure". i didn't know that blizzard announced 2 more expansions. ;o

Originally posted by JackFrosty

Any game with 10 million payed subscribers 8 yrs later is not going F2P or B2P anytime in the near or far future.

Btw your facts are completely wrong. Blizzard has announced no less then THREE more expansions for WoW.

Its not losing subs, its already back up to 10 million.

 

they will not pull the plug because their next mmo is not based on warcraft world and both games will exist parallel . so yeah its either f2p or subscription based .

http://www.gamespot.com/news/next-two-world-of-warcraft-expansions-planned-6367729

Sorry to break the news to you...

Edit: I see it's already been said... Ah well, I linked a source ^.^

So cash shop is automatically buy to win? Losing subs fast? -Pff.

With the amount of subs they currently have and the amount of items they sell for micro transactions it is nowere near neccesary but im sure they would make alot more money going free2play with a bigger real money shop.

Right now it seems free2play gaming is going to be the future wich i hate so much.  it opens so many options for goldsellers, hackers, bad habits since many players dont give a shit about their account. And many companies seem to go alot more ''careless'' after going free2play.

WoW a F2P? Seriously?!

Isn't going to happen anytime soon <imo>

This still goes to show that ppl will pay a monthly sub if they love the game enough and it's content.

Blizzard still charges for every expansion...

Usually when a MMO gets older the few expansions it has gets bundled into the original client as a one time purchase.

Not with blizzard. THey charge you for the client and then each expansion. Unless you catch one of blizzards sales you could pay around 150 dollars just to get into world of warcraft. 

THinking about f2p is a bit much lets hope they combine all of the expansions so new players interested in the game dont have to buy 4 expansions plus the original client.

Let's look at this from a different perspective, that being marketing strategy.

Does anyone remember the Polaroid camera? For nearly four decades Polaroid was wildly successful because they adhered to a razorblade marketing strategy -- they sold basic shaving kits (their camera), but relied most on sales of razorblades (proprietary film) for corporate profitability. For most of those four decades, Polaroid would introduce a new camera model (or other necessary attachment) just about every Christmas, thus making their previous models obsolete in the minds of increasingly technophiliac consumers. It was, until Polaroid fell off the technology bubble in the late 1980s, a wildly successful marketing scheme.

We can compare Blizzard's WoW marketing strategy quite similarly. They sell us a basic game client (basic shaving kit) and the monthly subscription (the razorblades), and periodically introduce "must-have" expansions. Like Polaroid, it's a hugely successful strategy.

With respect to the continuing success of Blizzard's marketing strategy, there's simply no reason for them to alter their present course. Also, and if we're to learn anything from History, WoW will be overtaken by changing technologies long before Blizzard can, or will choose to invest in new technology.

So, ultimately, the question of WoW ever going F2P is probably a moot issue, as Blizzard will doubtless ride their horse (and marketing strategy) until it drops dead on the track.

LOL OP SERIOUSLY? Blizz has more then 10 million subs  and you want it free to play??? LOL

i hope you dont  own any business, because apparantly you like losing money.

10 + million subs LOL going free to play my ass LOL.

I would looove to know if your high on crack.

In fact blizzard already said they are working on the next wow expansion after mop. LOL.

their profits tripled. Sorry to break it to you but wow isnt dying and wow is not like those stupid free to play games loser

companies such as soe, ncsoft and bioware.

I think it will be sub based for the expansion after MoP, but the expansion after that may see a change of some sort.

If GW2 wasn't enough to really hurt WOW, then anything come out in the next year or two isn't likely to either.  Titan will have a bigger affect than any other upcoming MMOs.