Three MMORPGs That Should Finally Bite The Bullet And Go F2P

Launching an MMORPG these days includes the all-important payment model decision. All options have their pros and cons, obviously, so it's an important decision for developers to make. Should you go the F2P MMORPG route, you'll likely open your game up to the largest audience possible on day one. However, that decision comes with a number of secondary decsions on how the game will fund itself. These secondary decisions, if made poorly, can end up driving away large groups of players later.

Opt for the box price or required subscription route and you'll ensure your game has some day one income, but you'll need to tread lightly when adding other forms of monetization since people already paid to play in one form or another.

Either way, you need to make a good game if you want free players or paid players to stick around. That's a point that seems to be missing sometimes, but it's probably also a topic for another day.

Today, I'd like to look at 3 MMOs that either should have gone F2P from the start, or should have made the leap to F2P by now. Each example falls into a different reason category, so they make interesting case studies on the multiple paths that lead to F2P being a viable option.

New World: Aeternum

Amazon Games' MMO New World: Aeternum is the example on this list that I feel should have just been F2P from its initial launch. Sure, there was quite a bit of excitement about an MMO coming from someone with pockets as deep as Amazon, but this was a totally new IP (one that originally started life as a survival game), and it was coming from a team with not the best of track records. I mean, Crucible and other titles from Amazon Games never even made it to full releases.

With massive player numbers (meaning huge day one sales), New World was off to a quick start. However, it all started falling apart with multiple economy issues and later updates being a bit on the bare side. This says nothing of PvP issues and a lack of end game content.

The game shifted directions a bit with the release of New World: Aeternum and a console launch, again leading to big numbers initially, but they've dwindled off again. We don't have full console numbers, but around 6K average players on Steam, the game's only PC platform, certainly doesn't reflect the numbers Amazon likely expected/desired.

While console players do have a small free trial they can use to check out the game, PC players have no such option. As box sales have likely fallen to low numbers, New World: Aeternum would best be served by a F2P conversion. If you want to sell the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion, fine, but the base game should be free going forward.

The Elder Scrolls Online

Next up we have The Elder Scrolls Online (TESO). Zenimax's MMORPG celebrated 10 years last year (technically into this year the way they celebrated) and in all that time it has been a buy-to-play MMORPG with an optional sub. (SIDEBAR: The crafting bag makes that "optional" subscription basically required if you intend to do any real crafting.) Just this month, TESO announced a shift from their previous "one new chapter a year" model to a more "seasonal" approach. The first of these "seasons" is a bit of a transition from old model to new model, so it happens to look similar to the "yearly" releases, but future seasons may not stick to a year being the duration.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of the current plans and need to wait for a few more updates as someone who normally subscribes when I play TESO. DLC, which is unlocked via purchases or unlocked as long as your subscription is active, is something that's included in buying the new "Content Passes" for the season. That means I am essentially paying twice for DLC content if changes aren't made to the offerings in the subscription. We'll see.

The 2025 Content Pass will run you $49.99 if you already own the base game. If you don't already own the base game, you can either buy the game itself (typically priced at $19.99) THEN buy the 2025 Content Pass, or by the "Deluxe" version of the Content Pass for $79.99 and get the base game included along with a few extras.

Did you see what happened there?

Yeah, the $49.99 pass does not include the base game. Presumably, this is because if it were included, you would have a second instance of players who already own the game feeling like they're paying twice for the same thing, this time the base game. Either that, or they'd have to offer a 4th option that was a tad less expensive without the base game included to avoid the "double charge" feeling. Can the number of players that haven't played TESO yet that would just jump in with the 2025 Content Pass really be high enough to warrant forcing new players into either 2 purchases or one more expensive purchase?

Come on, of course they can't.

TESO should make the base game F2P at this point. You aren't selling boxes at a rate that warrants a $20 price tag anymore, and you're trying to move to a model that encourages more people to make a seasonal purchase. Get them in there with the base game. Hell, when it's on sale it's usually dirt cheap anyway. Get players in there now, leveling up, having fun, and allow them to see the new content coming down the road and be excited to buy in because they're enjoying things for free now.

It would also allow you to get out of this "you have to buy the base game" loop that you're currently trapped in for each and every season going forward.

Black Desert Online

Our final example today is one that literally makes almost no money on box sales, but continues to stick to the box fee model. How do I know that? Ok, fine, I don't know that for a 100% fact, but literally, the game is dirt cheap at $10 normally, is on sale almost all the time, and even runs events a few times a year where you can claim the game for free and own it forever. Hell, as I sit and write this, Black Desert Online (BDO) is on sale on Steam for a whopping $0.99. Yeah, big investment.

I get that they may be sticking to this model at this point as more of a bot prevention measure, but if there's money for bots to make in BDO, 99 cents isn't stopping them from getting in.

It's also no secret that BDO's main income comes from its cosmetics. Generally believed to be a bit overpriced, the team has really leaned into fashion being the true end game and those that have those dollars get to play.

Currently, expansions in BDO are free if you own the game, so if they really wanted to, they could probably adopt a model similar to Guild Wars 2. Make the base game free, then charge a bit for the expansions. Sure, expansions in BDO may be a bit smaller than some other MMOs, but you just adjust the price down a bit. I feel like the game would make far more revenue that way than they would with the basic box fee these days.

Those are the ones I'd like to see move to a F2P model as fast as possible, but am I crazy? Let me know if you agree and if you think there's other MMORPGs out there that should just make the F2P leap now, too.