randall-price posts

Xfire free to play vs subscription MMO debate today

by Krystalle Voecks Feb 24th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Events, real-world, MMO industry, Opinion

If you were a follower of the Xfire Debate Club before you'll be glad to hear that they're starting the Debate Club back up again, as of today. That's right, at 5pm EST / 2pm PST (22:00 GMT) today, you can join a group of MMO journalists, developers, and other industry insiders as we debate the ins and outs of free to play vs subscription models.

Some of the many points that will undoubtedly come up over the course of the Xfire debate are:

Free sounds good, but what are the trade-offs?
Does quality or quantity matter more?
Is one business model more sustainable than the other?
With Free 2 Play games becoming such a driving force, where do you see MMOs going in general?

I'll be there to speak as part of the Massively team, but we'll be fielding some questions from those who show up to participate as well. Among the other guests are Cody Bye from Ten Ton Hammer, Randall Price from ArenaNet, Arend Stührmann from CCP, Christian Wehrlin from Games Masters, Josh Sell from Aeria Games, Adam Mersky from Turbine, Fred White from YNK Interactive, and Tony Colafrancesco from MMO Life as special guest moderator.

With such a great group of panelists to debate this with, it should prove to be an interesting and lively discussion. So be sure to grab a copy of the Xfire client if you haven't already, and come by to discuss the future of MMOs with us!

Tags: adam-mersky, arend-stuhrmann, christian-wehrlin, cody-bye, fred-white, free-to-play, games, mmo, mmorpg, randall-price, subscription, tony-colafrancesco, xfire, xfire-debate