Blizzard’s senior VP of game design Rob Pardo revealed at the Paris Game Developers Conference that World of Warcraft was originally intended to be a free-to-play, advertising supported MMO. Pardo said, reacting to the impact of free MMOs in Asia on WoW’s success, that “market conditions” forced them to realize that a subscription based model was the way to go.
While we’re certain that Blizzard is enjoying the 10 million or so World of Warcraft subscribers forking over to each month in fees, it would be interesting to peek into the alternate universe where WoW was funded by ads.
Many more Pardo-isms at the full report.
Paris GDC: The Rob Pardo Experience [Gamasutra]
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