WOW was nearly free to play

By Oli Welsh Published 25 June, 2008

Original plan featured ads, not a sub.

Speaking at the Game Developers Conference in Paris yesterday, Blizzard's vice president Rob Pardo revealed that World of Warcraft was originally conceived as a subscription-free game supported by advertisements, Gamasutra reports.

During a keynote interview - where he also virtually confirmed Blizzard will announce a new game this Saturday - Pardo told the audience: "When we were first going to make World of Warcraft, we wanted to make it free and advertising-supported."

However, he explained, the developer had to acknowledge the sums didn't add up. "We didn't want to charge a subscription, but as we researched market conditions, we realised that wouldn't support us." [What a shame, they must have thought - Dep Ed.]

Gamasutra has a full account of the conversation with Pardo, Blizzard's game design guru. Worth a read if you're trying to stop yourself thinking about Diablo III this lunchtime.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • alimokrane #1 4 years ago

    Well I guess we found out what the announcement is. WOW will be free to play with Ads

    There you go.

    Also Way to brag about that now when money is falling like rain on their heads.
    Edited by alimokrane at 25/06/08 @ 12:15

  • lambtron #2 4 years ago

    Hmm, I am sure they're gutted as they swim like Scrooge McDuck through their vats of money.

    Also, I'm sure Vivendi are devastated given they probably would have gone bankrupt were it not for WoW.

  • DFawkes #3 4 years ago

    Big mistake, no one will be willing to pay monthly for any game! I predict this will be the last we hear of this Warcraft World thing.

    I do like the frequent updates, and the fact I can just top-up when I want to play. I doubt we would've seen as much new bits and pieces added to an ad based one, so it's okay with me.

  • LazyDan #4 4 years ago

    Good. They have more money to create and maintain frequent, quality updates - and the game isn't filled with the types of players that free-to-play games attract.

    Everyone wins! Except the poor. HAH!

  • Benno #5 4 years ago

    That would've been insane. Glad it never happened. No other MMOs would probably have been made lol.

  • RazorObsession #6 4 years ago

    I have no life as it is juggling all the console, hand held, and PC games that I play, both single and multiplayer. Warcraft or MMO's in general, as much as i would love to become hopelessly addicted, are just not doable until I can have myself cloned.

    were WoW ad based and free to play, i might have made room for it.

  • kestral #7 4 years ago

    they also considered offering flying mounts at level 1 possibly.

  • drunkymonkey #8 4 years ago

    Did they also suspect that they'd only get 1 million subscriptions (only? PAH!) as well? 1 million non-paying subscribers or 10 million playing ones? Phew...

  • Moz #9 4 years ago

    Though with 10 million users would be interesting for them to do the maths again and see if they could get £100 million a months in advertising. Wouldn't be hard when you think about it people pay upwards of 50p a click on google ad words, if you got 10 to 20 advertisers on board you could generate the subscription fee no trouble.

    edit:

    Just also came to me that I guess with a subscription service they money out of you even if your not playing, i wonder how many people stop playing then forget to stop their subscription for a couple of months.
    Edited by Moz at 25/06/08 @ 13:09

  • seasidebaz #10 4 years ago

    It's bloody Diablo 3, innit. What a load of crap.

    source

  • M83J01P97 #11 4 years ago

    "Only about 3 to 4 million actually pay a monthly sub though "

    That's not true. The 10 Million players figure that Blizz bound around a lot is a world wide tally of ONLY the people who pay the monthly subscription. They do not count people on Buddy Key trails, download trails or deactivated accounts in their total players figure.

    Edited by M83J01P97 at 25/06/08 @ 14:09

  • kangarootoo #12 4 years ago

    @LazyDan

    Are you, in your elitist way, suggesting that someone who can afford a WoW sub is rich? Talk about niche snobbery.

  • LazyDan #13 4 years ago

    Since when is 'not poor' the same as rich?

    And I only like my snobbery in niches, thanks.

  • anomagnus #14 4 years ago

    anyone know what the subscription fee would be in zimbabwe?

    according to one current currency converter, it would be

    96,670,600,000 dollars - Thats right, 96 billion dollars per month or 1,160,047,200,000 dollars per year, over a trillion dollars a year

    WHO'S RICH NOW?!?!?!?!??!

    n.b. conversion worked out at 13 us dollars
    Edited by anomagnus at 25/06/08 @ 14:55

  • mikeck #15 4 years ago

    "You know they don't pay monthly subs in China, right?"

    Yes, they pay with their human rights instead ;)