It’s no doubt that Star Wars: The Old Republic is in a little bit of trouble. The game is down 400,000 subscribers since its launch and BioWare recently implemented free server transfer to consolidate servers.
In addition, last week they announced they’re making the game free for the first 15 levels. According to an interview with GamesTM, it looks like it won’t end there. According to the game’s lead designer, Emmanuel Lusinchi, the team is open to making the game F2P if they have to.
The MMO market is very dynamic and we need to be dynamic as well. Unless people are happy with what they have, they are constantly demanding updates, new modes and situations. So we are looking at free-to-play but I can’t tell you in much detail. We have to be flexible and adapt to what is going on.
A word of warning though-this shouldn’t be taken as an official announcement, as all Lusinchi is saying is that BioWare is willing to adapt to the F2P model if the need arises which, in all honestly, it probably will sooner or later.
