The day has finally come: Star Wars: The Old Republic will be going free-to-play this Fall.
BioWare announced the news just a bit ago, which should make many people happy. SWTOR will allow you to play all the way to the cap of level 50, but some access to certain advanced gameplay features and group content will be restricted to paying users. Certain races will be restricted during character creation and access to Flashpoints, Warzones, Space Missions, travel, and Galactic Trade Network will be on a limited basis. Operations will not be available for free players at first, but BioWare will be implementing microtransactions to allow free players access to Operations and more, like higher-level content. The game will still have a subscription system for those wishing to upgrade from F2P or keep their current subscription. Current subscribers will get some added bonuses, like extra Cartel Coins to use on the Cartel Market for unique items, and priority access when logging in to a server.
Star Wars: The Old Republic will be on sale for $14.99 on August 7th, which nets you a free month of in-game time and rewards like Cartel Coins. You can check out the differences between free and subscription modes to see if buying Star Wars: The Old Republic is something you want to do or stick with free.
good news! Hopefully this will revitalize the game and help for recruiting.
Lieutenant Colonel | TAW 4+ Year Club
TAW is partially about socializing, but also partially about achievement. It would be smart to do F2P until you get to 50 and then subscribe so we can push end-game content. It would be incredibly frustrating to have a lot of level 50s but nobody to raid.
I will be very interested to see how this turns out for the future of the game. I am all for it personally because I have always thought that if I play the game with others who enjoy it, than I really don't care if the masses and doomsayers condemn it. The main thing is to take the information as it comes and with a grain of salt. I also noticed that they are raising the level cap and adding more content in August so that is also a huge positive.