There were some rumors back in June that according to Star Wars: The Old Republic’s lead designer, they were considering the free-to-play model. This would let gamers play the game for free without subscription fees. In this model developers make money by selling perks, items, gold and other in game goodies for cash. At the time, the developers were only considering the model.
But now we have some reports that an anonymous BioWare Austin employee lashed out at Star Wars fans, blaming them for the game’s “failure”. The interesting part is that the employee also went on to “confirm” that the game was in the process of converting to the free-to-play model.
So why haven’t they made the change yet? According to the employee it is due to layoffs. The team is currently shorthanded and having problems managing the change. This guy could be full of it, so take this with a grain of salt. It would be nice to play for free though.
Source Ubergizmo