World of Warcraft could have been ad-supported
Pardo reveals all at GDC
Speaking at the Game Developers Conference taking place in Paris this week, Blizzard's own Rob Pardo has admitted to the assembled industry types that World of Warcraft - the world's most profitable MMO with over 10 million subscribers - could have been free-to-play, supported by in-game ads.
That, Pardo told the GDC, was the original plan, but market conditions forced a re-think. We assume the developer are convinced they made the right decision with hindsight.
"When were first going to make World of Warcraft, we wanted to make it free and advertising supported," Pardo is quoted as explaining by Gamasutra.
He goes on: "We didn’t want to charge a subscription, but as we researched market conditions, we realized that wouldn’t support us."
More soon.
