MMOHut: Exclusive: World of Warcraft to go Free to Play

MMOHut, "Blizzard's flagship title, World of Warcraft, will be going free to play! Our inside sources confirm that discussions have been held among Blizzard high-execs and that sometime in the near future, Blizzard will announce WoW's conversion to the free to play model. Blizzard is concerned that current economic conditions will force many players to cut back on fixed subscription spending. As a means of maintaining player interest, WoW will shed its subscription price and open a cash shop that offers optional items and services for small fees...."

[MMOGamer]

There's a lot of money to be had in free to play. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up making a lot more profit.

[Lionsguard]

Don't be a fool

[Government Cheese]

Even if it weren't april 1st, just think about it. Blizzard is owned by Activision. You think Activision would allow it to be free lol?

[darkmurder]

Did anyone actually after reading the title believe this in the slightest and still go ahead and read the article?

[bobcostus]

Wrong. Activision doesn't own Blizzard. They merged. They are a single company called Activision Blizzard.

[Government Cheese]

Really just further proves my point then.

[evrfighter]

sure it's an April Fool's joke now.

But this is Bobby Kotick CEO of Activision/Blizzard we're talking about.

Every franchise he touches turns to gold but after a few days after he's got your money. The gold begins to crack eventually turns to dust.

F2P will be what happens to WoW when the sharp decline in subscriptions come. Guaranteed.

[Christopher]

Should we really put 4/1/2010 articles as news?

[Ghoul]

1st april

and pleae do the math anyway 5 mio+ subribers makes around 4 million dollars a MONTH.

[Lionsguard]

Thats uhh..some pretty bad math there.. first off they have like what 11 million subscribers? not 5mill and its $15 a month so more or less $165,000,000 a month which would make it $1,980,000,000 year before taxes and bills etc.etc. Yea..WoW is going free alright. I forgot about all those people changing races/gender/names/switching servers. So that number is likely higher.

[rexus12345]

this is tooooooooo obvious

[nveenio]

I would actually play the game, if it was free. I did the 10-day free trial and haven't touched it since.

[Therealspy03]

however, if blizzard/activision did knock down the price to 10 dollars instead of 15, i bet they'd see a FLOOD of people coming back. especially if they did it before the launch of SC2 and D3. i know i'd go back and see what's up in the world of warcraft. catch up with some old friends.

hell...i might anyway. damn addictive mmos and their strong communities. of course i get the itch just when the weather starts getting nice. DAMN YOU BLIZZARD.

[gintoki777]

OMFG!

[Seferoth75]

@Ghoul,

Do you really think 5 million people paying 14.95 a month is only 4 million a month? I pity you and those that go to the same school as you.
74,750,000 is 14.95 a month by 5 million. Now please be able to do something yourself before you go around telling others to do that.

Now granted Wow is at 11million but in China they don't pay 14.95 a month so it wouldnt work out that way but at least 5 million US subs is a given

[gabetechno]

I would honestly start playing WoW again if it didn't have a subscription. I'd probably end up spending money on it too, through character transfers and stuff. would be smart imho.

[ElementX]

Lame April Fools.

[lordaltay]

No way this is real but I bet Blizzard could legit make a lot of money by going free to play. Think about it. I read that a lot of those free to play games like Fiesta Online and Shaiya make on average $50-70 a MONTH per user for 6+ months until they quit. If those lame games can do it, WoW can make a killing. Seriously. Research it. Those micro-transaction based games make a killing because when you pay once you get addicted. lol

[gabetechno]

If those games really make that kind of money, it would be funny to see how much WoW would make. I also doubt this is real but it's interesting to think about it. I read earlier that Dungeons and Dragons Online did indeed make a KILLING since it went free to play.

So there's profit to be had in micro-transactions for sure

[StarScream4Ever]

April Fools. :D

If its real then I'll repent... later. XD

[lordaltay]

I think this is a joke as well, but in all honesty, Blizzard could make A LOT of money in free to play. One company Perfect World Entertainment has like a boat load of free to play titles. They're worth a staggering $1.8 billion (Publicily traded on the U.S. Stock market. Ticker PWRD). They only make free to play MMORPGs. So yeah, it's unlikely WoW would go free to play, but i think if they did they *could* still do really well.

I know for a fact I would log on to my 60 priest and start playing. I quit pre-bc.

[tamd]

thats called fail april fool gag , everybody knows this will never happen

[TrevorPhillips]

Its's a fool guys I just asked Andrew Carr, technical support from Blizzard

[JeepGamer]

I wondered how long it would be before the front page started filling up with April Fools jokes.

[Xemnas]

april 1st nuff said

[AliTheBrit19]

April Fools xD

[mrv321]

I think it may eventually go free when Blizzards next MMO takes hold.

[hazelamy]

come on, an april fools joke has got to be plausible at least to be any good.

[maxcer]

should we even be expecting any legit news today?

[DirtyLary]

This is the best they can come up with?

Sad attempt!!

[Omega Zues]

Yeah no kidding.

[LinuxGuru]

lol...April fools isn't even exciting anymore...the jokes used to actually catch you off guard. Not so much nowadays.

[lordaltay]

It's not that they aren't exciting, it's just that EVERYONE expects April Fools jokes today. They aren't believable when EVERYONE expects it. Especially since every website / company does it nowadays.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

Edit:

Oh wow, just call me retarded, I didn't realized it was an april fools joke, thought that sht was over hours ago.