Thread: WoW not to go F2P anytime soon.

Again from Massively.com

Blizzard not yet ready to slaughter the cash cow and go F2P

It seems like the subscription-free bug has been catching on lately. Turbine experimented by rolling Dungeons and Dragons Online over to free-to-play, and saw their players (and revenue) jump appreciably. Now Turbine is taking the next step by rolling their triple-A MMO, Lord of the Rings Online, over to the same model. We've also recently seen Hi-Rez Studios take Global Agenda over to a somewhat similar model to Guild Wars -- buy it once, play it forever. What might we see go subscription-free next? Could it be World of Warcraft?

According to Tom Chilton, Lead Designer on Blizzard's current kong-sized-gorilla, World of Warcraft, the company has thought about free-to-play as a potential model for their flagship MMO. But we'd warn you against celebrating just yet: Those thoughts have been more along the lines of intellectual curiosity -- a "down the road when we're not on top" type of thing. While many companies are working hard to improve their portion of the market, there just haven't been any fabled "WoW killers" as yet, poised to bean the Blizzard-spawned giant in the head with the proverbial well-aimed rock. Until that time comes -- even if they wind up unseating WoW with another monster of their own creation -- we're unlikely to see Blizzard dropping those lucrative monthly subscription fees.

[via WoW.com]

SOE has said the same about EQ2, their cash cow. I think though that we might see more casual folks make the switch to a F2P model especially with the economy. They might in fact pay for some things on an MMO they would not play otherwise and still keep the WoW account active.

No surprise really. They are on their 3rd expansion coming out soon and no real signs that they'll be loosing their player base anytime soon. People might bitch and moan about the changes in each expansion, yet they keep on playing so there is no need for Blizzard to do anything else really.