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    BioWare defends The Old Republic's subscription model

    BioWare defends The Old Republic's subscription model

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    Bioware's Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk sit down with Joystiq to talk about the benefits of Star Wars: The Old Republic's pay-to-play model.

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    BioWare’s on its way to a bonafide hit with Star Wars: The Old Republic, with more than a million players registering in the past two weeks and over 60 million game hours logged, but some folks are still heated about the company charging subscription fees when so many popular MMORPGs are going free-to-play. The Old Republic isn’t a 99 cent-a-month affair either — prices range from $14.99 for a single month to $12.99 a month for a six-month package, and that's on top of the initial purchase price of the game ($59.99 for the Standard Edition, which includes 30 days of online play).

    In an interview with Joystiq, BioWare’s CEO Ray Muzyka and VP Greg Zeschuk make an enthusiastic case for their subscription model, pointing to their ability to invest more in games when they’re financed by player subscriptions, and insisting that free games only represent one slice of the MMO pie. They go on to tease a new iteration on a classic brand "...that people have a lot of fond memories around." We don't want to speak out of turn, but our money's on Sesame Street.