Free-to-play World of Warcraft?

Having launched in November 2004, the MMORPG World of Warcraft is ancient in gaming terms. Yet a steady stream of expansion content, and graphics and gameplay overhauls has kept the game relatively fresh and relevant.

WoW has seen a decline in subscriber numbers in recent years, from a high of 12-million in late 2010, to the most recent figure of 7.6-million reported by Activision-Blizzard during in early November 2013 – however, the recently announced Warlords of Draenor expansion might staunch the subscriber bleeding.

With pretty much every MMO competitor that was touted as a WoW-killer – even the mighty Star Wars: The Old Republic – having to resort to a free-to-play model to retain player numbers, the inevitable question is being asked – will WoW ever go free-to-play?

Speaking to Eurogamer, production director J Allen Brack said “We would have to rework the game pretty significantly in order to make it free-to-play. It’s not something we’re currently considering.”

Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime said “We’ll continue to invest heavily in World of Warcraft to deliver frequent, high-quality content to our players. But in terms of the content and developing, we have more resources focused on developing content for World of Warcraft than ever before. So we expect to continue having a long and happy life.”