Episode IV, A NEW HOPE<\/strong><\/p>\n It is a period of subscription decline. The new, free-to-play option put a level 50 cap on players (also the current level cap, but EA will be increasing that to an as yet unconfirmed number for subscribers) and restricts a number of features like character creation, the Galactic Trade Network, and server access priority. For people who want to pay, the monthly subscription price will be dropped to $14.99 in August.<\/p>\n To encourage paying subscribers, the developer is also offering deals to both current and lapsed subscribers with 150 Cartel Coins for every month paid up to now, with an additional 200 Cartel Coins per month if they continue to subscribe through to the launch of the free-to-play option when it happens later this year. Collector’s Edition owners will also get a one-time cash bonus of 1,000 Cartel Coins.<\/p>\n There’s already a FAQ over on the official site<\/a>, but this useful comparison chart has most of the relevant info:<\/p>\n Use the Force to enlarge the image, or simply click it if your midi-chlorian count is too low.<\/p><\/div>\n Subscription price drop also incoming<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":31075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[31,427,6042,175,813,1994,921],"class_list":["post-42243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-pc","tag-active","tag-bioware","tag-bioware-austin","tag-ea","tag-electronic-arts","tag-free-to-play","tag-star-wars-the-old-republic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42282,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42243\/revisions\/42282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRebel spaceships lie abandoned and derelict, while the evil
\nGalactic Empire is busy playing other stuff.
\nDuring this time, a secret alliance of developer and publisher
\nmanaged to come up with a new ultimate weapon,
\nthe FREE-TO-PLAY OPTION,
\na new subscriber model with enough incentive
\nto maybe get some players back onto the empty servers.
\nPursued by the bank’s sinister agents,
\nEA and BioWare race home aboard their rented Toyota,
\ncustodians of the plan that can save their investment
\nand restore freedom (and players) to the galaxy\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/swotr-free-versus-subscription-comparison-chart.jpg\" "\\"swotr")
<\/a>Source: Star Wars: The Old Republic official website<\/a><\/h5>\n
Related articles:<\/h3>\n
EA loses 400,000 Star Wars: The Old Republic players<\/a><\/h3>\n
The Old Republic hurt WoW subscription figures: Blizzard<\/a><\/h3>\n
Guess how many people worked on Star Wars: The Old Republic<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"