Lead designer Tom Chilton says the multiplatinum MMORPG champion could abolish monthly subscription plan by adopting microtransaction system.

How much for the Sword of a Thousand
Truths? Multiply the cost of one truth by 1,000.

The microtransaction-based Free Realms recruited 3 million users less than seven weeks after its launch, inviting players to its casual family-friendly world to buy accessories for their postmen and chef characters. However, its revenue has yet to match World of Warcraft's, which had more than 11 million subscriptions by October 2008. Despite its extraordinary commercial success with a traditional subscription model, WOW lead designer Tom Chilton said the dominant MMORPG could go free-to-play in the future.

In an interview with VideoGamer, Chilton said, "I certainly think it's possible that we could do some kind of microtransaction stuff. Whether or not World of Warcraft ever goes the direction of, I guess like Anarchy Online has gone the direction of going free-to-play with microtransactions. Whether we ever shift to a free-to-play model is really too hard to say at this point."

If the game adopts a free-to-play model in the future, it won't be the first premium MMORPG to switch to a microtransaction-based revenue stream. In June, Turbine announced that the struggling Dungeons & Dragons Online will abandon its subscription-based system later this summer.

Chilton declined to comment on the subscription model for Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming top-secret MMOG. However, the WOW developer-publisher has said that the game will be an entirely new IP unique enough as to not compete with World of Warcraft.

Source: GameSpot

I could see it happening when D3/new MMO comes out.

Runes of Magic is another F2P WoW/EQ clone.  They are a dime a dozen these days.

microtransactions = no play from me or my family.

not goona happen anytime soon, but sure in a few years when Blizzard launch their new MMO and wow numbers start to decline then we could see that model used.

Originally posted by mlauzon

Chilton declined to comment on the subscription model for Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming top-secret MMOG. However, the WOW developer-publisher has said that the game will be an entirely new IP unique enough as to not compete with World of Warcraft.

 

 

 

This is the only part that really peeked my interest. I'm hoping for a scifi game.

Originally posted by mlauzon

The microtransaction-based Free Realms recruited 3 million users less than seven weeks after its launch, inviting players to its casual family-friendly world to buy accessories for their postmen and chef characters. However, its revenue has yet to match World of Warcraft's, which had more than 11 million subscriptions by October 2008. 

Journos are slower than news. We all already know that the 11 million subs is a outdated data.  Remenbering it in a article, is living in the past.  

I will archive this article in  "Old People use the internet" and "Giant chicken in farm in colorado" area. Stuff written just for the smal "shock horror" but pointless and  un-informative.  The oposite of journalism,   just enterinament. Yellow snow.

 Wild especulations.  I have see the same thing here on this forums, but we are not professionals.. :- /

This microtransaction movement is just a temporary blip.  If you thought about it from the financial side it makes far less sense, especially to investors.  Think about it, would you rather have a steady income from everyone at $15 a month or just have 10% of your playerbase paying for the rest?  One is guarenteed the other can be good or bad depending on the whims of the playerbase.  The financial guys are going to go for the guarenteed cash everytime and they have a big say in how these games derive income.

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Originally posted by -Zeno-
Runes of Magic is another F2P WoW/EQ clone.  They are a dime a dozen these days.

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Would you children stop calling every MMO that comes out a WoW clone, if anything WoW and every MMO that has come out is a clone of RPGs from the '70s & '80s!

Obviously a case of Blizzard not eliminating any possibilities.

Blizzard said that cross type server transfers would never happen, later they allowed it and a lot of forumites had a nerd rage fit over it.

It would be wise to move away from $15 a month model later on when WoW is no longer top dog and its glory days are well behind it. Some very low population MMOs foolishly cling to the rigid subscription model and they only suffer because of it.

they have millions of subscribers and make a billion+ each year .... why would they want to change it? micro transaction models are usually a last ditch effort....

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Originally posted by Nicksd
This is the only part that really peeked my interest. I'm hoping for a scifi game.

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 Same here. Less fantasy, more sci-fi please.

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Originally posted by tvalentine
they have millions of subscribers and make a billion+ each year .... why would they want to change it? micro transaction models are usually a last ditch effort....

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or a more ludicrous $$ option..

So Free Realms acquired 3 million users, so what? How much money is Sony making out of it, that’s what counts. Facebook has millions of users, they still cannot make it pay for itself, whatever we are talking about online, unless users subscribe it means nothing revenue wise.

If the game is not good enough to play as subscription, what exactly would make it good enough to play as free with RMT? My guess is, nothing. And even those who would not play it via subscription decide to play the F2P, do you think they will purchase anything from the RMT? Why exactly?

RMT for ex-subscription games is just a way to keep them artificially alive.

Originally posted by mlauzon

 

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Originally posted by -Zeno-
Runes of Magic is another F2P WoW/EQ clone.  They are a dime a dozen these days.

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Would you children stop calling every MMO that comes out a WoW clone, if anything WoW and every MMO that has come out is a clone of RPGs from the '70s & '80s!

Either you have an IQ of about 50 or you have never seen Runes of Magic.

I'd say they would be nuts to do that, as long as they have more than a million subs.

As been said many times, Free Realms has 3 million registered users, that does not mean anything, if you use the 89/10/0 rule on these 3 million registered users, then you have the equivalent revenue of 160k subs ...

http://www.massively.com/2009/06/13/free-realms-guesstimating-monthly-revenue-using-the-89-10-1-rul/

But even the 89/10/0 rule is pretty risky to use, because we have no clue what the retention rate is for Free Realms or most other RMT games ...

So unless Free Realms starts giving some numbers on active users, we are in the dark, still, if they don't, then that is a good indication it is not enough :p Otherwise they would.

Originally posted by xxpigxx

microtransactions = no play from me or my family.

I agree with you.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

This microtransaction movement is just a temporary blip.  If you thought about it from the financial side it makes far less sense, especially to investors.  Think about it, would you rather have a steady income from everyone at $15 a month or just have 10% of your playerbase paying for the rest? 

One is guarenteed the other can be good or bad depending on the whims of the playerbase.  The financial guys are going to go for the guarenteed cash everytime and they have a big say in how these games derive income.

 

You're assuming the P2P MMO has a steady population and the F2P MMO does not.

You're assuming the P2P model offers a better ROI than the F2P model.

You're assuming the P2P model is a lower risk than the F2P model.

 

There really isn't much data to support those assumptions.

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Originally posted by donjn

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Originally posted by mlauzon

 

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Originally posted by -Zeno-
Runes of Magic is another F2P WoW/EQ clone.  They are a dime a dozen these days.

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Would you children stop calling every MMO that comes out a WoW clone, if anything WoW and every MMO that has come out is a clone of RPGs from the '70s & '80s!

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Either you have an IQ of about 50 or you have never seen Runes of Magic.

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Nice insult, not! Seeing as how I've got a high level char in RoM, but my statement still stands, only children of the late '80s & early '90s call every MMORPG that comes out a WoW clone!