Star Wars: The Old Republic goes free-to-play this Fall

Though it will come as no surprise to most gamers, EA and Bioware have announced today that they are planning to integrate afree-to-playsystem into the existing subscriber-based model of Star Wars: The Old Republic.

They've said the change will be coming this Fall as The Old Republic will become a hybrid F2P game similar to highly successful F2P transition of Lord of the Rings Online. The subscription option will still exist, and those players will be essentially treated as VIPs and given an allowance of money to spend in the online store.

However, players will then able to download and play the game for free up to level 50 if that's the route they choose. They'll also be able to unlock specific restrictions individually.

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“Players want flexibility and choice. The subscription-only model presented a major barrier for a lot of people who wanted to become part of The Old Republic universe,” said Matthew Bromberg, general manager of Bioware Austin, which produces SWTOR.

Something tells me we're going to have to amend our list of the best F2P MMOs. The switch to F2P will be coming in November.