Proving that the world’s insatiable desire for more and more WoW is still alive and thriving, Blizzard’s WoW Game Director Tom Chilton’s words regarding the possible inclusion in the world’s most popular MMO certainly lit up the blogosphere in less time than it takes to reach level 2.
The microtransactions comment aside, VideoGamer.com’s interview with Chilton provides a treasure chest of asides and tid-bits about the possibility of new races and classes that could make their way into future expansion, those areas of the map that you just can’t seem to find access to, and even alien visitors to Azeroth. Pretty much your standard fair when interviewing someone of Chilton’s caliber and position within the Blizzard world.
However, there’s one question asked towards the end of the interview that’s got just about everyone AND their grandmother a-buzzin’: Will WoW always be subscription based? Could it ever have a microtransaction/free-to-play model?
I certainly think it’s possible that we could do some kind of micro-transaction stuff. Whether or not World of Warcraft ever goes the direction of, I guess like Anarchy Online has gone the direction of going free-to-play with micro-transactions. Whether we ever shift to a free-to-play model is really too hard to say at this point. Anything I say now could easily five years from now end up seeming like, oh my gosh, that was an incredibly dumb thing to say, how naive!
Ok, now before the OMGWTF? comments start spewing forth, let’s take a look at that again. Chilton is merely saying that Blizzard COULD do SOME KIND of microtransaction stuff. He’s clearly not committing to anything here, but also not crossing the theory off completely. Personally, I don’t see Blizzard ever abandoning the subscription model with WoW, as it’s become a mega-industry in it’s own right. Every time you purchase a time card, there’s someone that’s contracted to make those cards. There’s a data and security department dedicated solely to making sure that those ‘one time use only’ chains of numbers are/were actually paid for, and are used for legitimate purposes. I also don’t believe that WoW will be headed towards a free-to-play business model any time before the long awaited, and highly sought after ‘WoW Killer’ finally comes to market. And my guess is that said WoW Killer will be brought to you by none other than Blizzard themselves.
Having said that, there are also a number of things happening inside WoW right now that are clear movements towards a microtransaction based frame of mind. The customize your character haircut could easily be converted to a microtransaction purchase. If you want to move your character to another server, Blizzard charges you a fee for this convenience; a microtransaction of sorts. Likewise, if you want to change your name for whatever the reason may be, again, a small fee is required by Blizzard. Not what you’d normally file under the term ‘microtransaction’ but if viewed in the right light, can be seen as one.
So is the world’s most popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft going free-to-play, microtransaction supported? No. Does this mean that Blizzard is ruling out the possibility of microtransaction-esque purchases? According to Tom Chilton, No.
