Shocking absolutely nobody
Wildstaronce stood firm in the face of a growing tide of MMOs ditching subscriptions and instead opting for Free-to-Play orGuild Wars-style one time purchasing. Developer Carbine has been pretty critical of F2P in the past and so it seemed unlikely to ever go completely down that route.
It turns out an MMO with dwindling popularity can’t actually stand firm. Whodathunkit?Games.on.nethas reported that major Australian retailers EB Games and JB Hi-fi have been instructed to remove the game from sale. TheWildstarwebsite is still selling the game, but otherwise good luck finding it in Australia.
This is a pattern of behaviour whichThe Elder Scrolls: Onlinealso followed: remove from retail,then drop the subscription fee. It’s possible that’s what publisher NCSoft is doing withWildstar. We don’t know anything for definite other than it’s been removed from retail, but the precedent is there and, let’s be honest, has anyone really paid attention toWildstarrecently? If it does go F2P, or adopt a pay-once model, we should hear about it soon.
WildStar possibly heading F2P as stock withdrawn from EB Games and JB Hi-Fi[Games.on.net]
