Bioware defends The Old Republic subscription model, teases free-to-play for older IPs

BioWare founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk are once again defending Star Wars: The Old Republic’s subscription payment scheme. During an interview with Joystiq, the pair tackled the entire subscription vs. free-to-play business models, while teasing a free-to-play model for some of their older IPs.

Zeschuk explained, ”You look at the online space in general and it’s fragmenting into all these different areas, but the core still works. The subscription model still works. We know a lot of people say, ‘Oh, everything’s just going free-to-play.’ But that’s just one slice. There’s one slice that’s free-to-play, there’s one slice that’s social, there’s traditional subscription still going.”

According to Zeschuk, a subscription-based MMO has the leeway to do things that a free-to-play MMO cannot, pointing out, ”The free-to-play people can’t invest to the level we can invest, and can’t create something of the size and scale of something we can create.” He then added that the idea all MMOs will follow the free-to-play model is ”from a business perspective, ridiculous.”

That’s not to say that BioWare isn’t above using the free-to-play model. One of BioWare’s inherited MMOs from recent acquisition Mythic Entertainment, Warhammer Online, currently runs on the free-to-play model. In addition, Muyzka teased the tantalizing notion that some of BioWare’s older IPs might go free-to-play.

Muyzka hinted, ”You can re-imagine things and kinda envision (free-to-play) in different ways. We have some other stuff we haven’t announced yet coming from our play-for-free team that I’m really excited about. It’s gonna bring back some IP that people have a lot of fond memories around.” Some of the older, unused BioWare properties include Baldur’s Gate and Jade Empire, both of which would fit Muyzka’s description.