Paul Sams, the chief operating officer at Blizzard Entertainment recently spoke on behalf the company, stating World of Warcraft isn't likely to ever be free. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, it seems.

Have you been considering free-to-play for World of Warcraft, and if you did, what would the Blizzard way of free-to-play look like?

PS: I don’t envision us changing the business model for World of Warcraft. It’s been working really well in each of the markets.

The game has been designed in such a way to where we determined the business model to wrap that around what the game experience was. Given that we’re not looking to significantly modify the overall gameplay experience, which is I think is something you’d need in order to do item-based stuff, what that says to me is the business model’s going to remain the same for WoW, and then as new products come about for Blizzard, we’ll look at what the business model is that’s right for each of those games.

If we make a game that’s right for an item-based game, then we would do that – if it’s the right business model. But really, the game drives what the business model is. And WoW has been built in such a way where I don’t think that would be the way we’d go.

chautemoc via gamasutra.com »