Unlimited Free Trials: Is WoW Next?

PURE SPECULATION

Recently Warhammer Online and Age of Conan, two high profile games, have started offering unlimited free trials of their starter content. So, with more and more games going free to play or offering more content for no money down, is a change of this variety in the works for World of Warcraft?

The idea of giving the Old World content to players for free has been around for a while now. However, there are two obvious problems with freeing that content up in the long run:

1. Wow is way more successful than Warhammer and AoC combined and has no pressing financial reason to all of sudden give away a large part of their game.

2. The next expansion, Cataclysm, is going to radically change the Old World in an attempt to refocus the population of the game.

So, no, in the long term I cannot see Blizzard giving away any part of their golden hen. The short term, however, is a different story. Lately, the marketing push for the game has seemed to of ramped up. Just the other day my mom and I were watching TV when one of those Mr. T Mohawk Grenade ads came on. She thought it was hilarious. It got me thinking.

With the release of patch 3.3 last week the current expansion is done, paving the way for Cataclysm sometime (I hope) in the first half of next year. And this marketing campaign with well known faces suggests that they will push the next expansion more heavily than any previous as it is probably the largest change to the game to date. So, what will bring the most new players into the game in the lull between January and when the expansion hits?

Starting early next year, offer the Old World content for free until the release of Cataclysm.

Age of Conan is doing basically the same thing until, I think, the end of this year. And yes, I know, in the case of Warcraft it might be seen as the old bait-and-switch: get new players in with this old stuff, then when the expansion hits and they subscribe everything they have come to know is different.

That last part though, is solved by just being honest and up front. If I were to advertise that I had a dinosaur living in my backyard, but that it was going to die in a week, people would still flock to see it. That it was going to die soon would only give them a bigger sense of urgency.

Okay, bad example, but you get the idea. Anyway, your thoughts?

-Max