Today BioWare announced that it will host a second free weekend for players to try out Star Wars: The Old Republic, and is only good for new SWTOR players. Those that already took advantage of the last free weekend will not be able to do so this time around without creating a new account.
As before, players are restricted to two planets, their starting planet and their factions capital planet. The second free trial begins on March 22nd, 5:00am GMT until March 26th, 7:00am GMT.
Does this signal problems for SWTOR? BioWare announced they received an “overwhelmingly positive” response from the first weekend pass trial, but I somehow doubt “positive” translates to “success”. To announce a second free weekend only three days after the first one ends suggests they came no where near their goal in terms of getting trial players converted to paying customers.
It’s going to be interesting to see what type of subscriber numbers EA ends up with for the first quarter of 2012. I’m scared for them.
The times they are changing…
In the past I would pay gladly for WoW AND expansions AND pay my monthly fee.
I did it with Rift too but much more reluctant.
I’m still willing to pay a monthly fee for an MMORPG but not also plm. €50,- for a game I can only play if I play a monthly fee too.
There’s simply too much on offer these days. The times have changed and me with them.
SWTOR looks nice, I tried the beta, but I will only play it when they offer the game itself for free.