Old Republic pricing will depend on MMO “standard,” says BioWare

No update on Star Wars: The Old Republic last Friday (except a couple of new forum avatars), but there's a bit of news now. Videogaming247 has the following to report:

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s business model will depend on what’s considered to be the norm on other MMOs, BioWare’s told VG247, likely meaning the game will carry a subs model in the West.

“The way we look at these things is, ‘What’s the standard at the time?’ Obviously we’re not quite done yet. We’ve got a lot of work left to do. But we’ll be very conscious of how the market looks,” company head Greg Zeschuk said, speaking at GDC.

Both Zeschuk and BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka were at pains to stress the game’s business model has yet to be announced.

EA has previously said that the MMO, which as yet has no released date, will be a worldwide affair.

Looks like it'll be the standard monthly subscription model for SW:TOR after all. Which is... disappointing. I would've hoped BioWare would come with something more original. Now they'll be directly competing with WoW, which is a battle they can really only lose (unless SW:TOR turns out to be another freak case like WoW). Ah well, guess I'll have to abandon SW:TOR as soon as something else comes around (as I'm not paying for two MMOs at once).