We Called It: Star Wars The Old Republic to Go Free-to-Play

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of dollars suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

As you may recall, we here at KGB have been pretty down on SWTOR ever since it launched. Zack spent a few months with the title, and Adam Marcey expressed interest in checking it out as well. Soon after its December 2011 release however, player began to abandon The Old Republic quicker than the Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. What a great movie. Can you believe that Titanic actually came out on TWO VHS tapes? That's ridiculous. As if I was going to get up and switch the tapes halfway through.

Anyway, EA and BioWare have been doing their best to call TOR's dwindling subscriber rates are merely being "standard industry trends" and whatnot. But all the smooth talking in the world isn't enough to hide the fact that The Old Republic has severely underperformed. It's even worse when you take into account the fact that this game had a reported budget of somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 million.

Back at E3, EA announced that The Old Republic would be going free-to-play up to level 15. The boxed copy of the game would still retail in the $50 range, and monthly subscriptions rates would still apply after level 15.

Well, scratch that. In a press release, it was announced that TOR would be going free-to-play all the way up to level 50. And the boxed game would now retail for $14.99.

Less than a year after release. Think about that.

What about you folks? Anyone out there playing The Old Republic? What do you think of it, and its newly announced free-to-play model?

Christopher Linendoll is the one who can bring balance to the Force. He can be reached via Twitter, or found in the hummus section of your local grocery store.