Rumor: Guild Wars 2 Going Free-To-Play
Raids coming to #GW2 and core game free to play according to a deleted tweet from IGN pic.twitter.com/kW3viK11pu
— Kristina Hunter (@dulfycleric) August 27, 2015
Well, there's something to get your PAX news cycle going.
As you can see above, IGN Tweeted out and then deleted the news that Guild Wars 2's core game would be going free-to-play, probably after the Heart of Thorns expansion goes live later this year. (The other part, about raid content, is known to be revealed this weekend.)
I could probably go on for several paragraphs, but I'm hesitant to speculate too much on the effect this will have on the game or its community or economy until we receive some kind of confirmation and an exact idea of what this (potential) plan entails. And, to be honest, I'm still going back and forth with several people myself discussing the ramifications and forming my own thoughts.
The only thing I will say is that I don't feel like any such move is a sign that GW2 is "dying." The financials are still good, a new expansion is on the way, and it includes the core game, which ArenaNet has practically given away -- discounting it for as low as $5-$10 during sales -- for the past few years, so making it "free" isn't really that much of a change.
ArenaNet has a presentation planned for Saturday morning at PAX Prime, so we'll probably learn everything we need to know about this topic then. For now, we'll just leave you with this bit of news and let you form your own opinion. Good? Bad? No big deal? Let us know what you think!
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Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.
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The agreement will cover AI protections and more.
NCSoft decided to have Wildstar go F2P so it would make sense from a financial perspective .
And that Blade & Soul is also a F2P title only adds to the idea that NCSoft is backing away from the subscription model altogether with maybe an option for players that want to pay
a monthly elite sub like Tera has.
The expansion coming out is going to cost like full price.
And I wouldn't really expect ign to be the first to hear of mmo news as big as that. Either way I already paid 60 bux for the game 3 years ago so it's no more f2p then wat it was the money is gone unless im getting a refund.
However, if the F2P option becomes part of GW2, it will be almost exactly as SWTOR.. I can see it already,