BioWare reveals SWTOR free-to-play restrictions

EA and BioWare are going to try and revitalise Star Wars: The Old Republic by turning free-to-play. That transition could happen any day now; we're in autumn/fall, and that's as specific as EA and BioWare have been.

Perhaps we'll be waiting until mid-December and the game's first anniversary (20th December) for the F2P launch. That way SWTOR would have lasted a year as a subscription MMO.

Nevertheless, with the F2P transition approaching, EA has stipulated what you'll be able to get for free and what you'll need to pay for. This popped up yesterday, so apologies if you've already seen this elsewhere.

According to the SWTOR Subscription vs. free-to-play features, free players will:

• Have limited character creation options
• Be restricted to three Warzones (PVP matches), three Flashpoints (dungeons) and three Space Missions (spaceship combat) a week
• Not be able to take part in Operations (raids)
• Not be able to equip purple artifact-quality items
• Be restricted to five field revivals
• Not get priority space in server log-in queues
• Have a longer cooldown for Quick Travel
• Not have access to Emergency Fleet Pass

It sounds like free players may also have less inventory or cargo hold space. But as with most of the above, the restrictions can be overcome by paying for weekly passes or by spending Cartel Coins - paid-for currency. Money talks louder than mind tricks.

These restrictions aren't in place for the people who choose to subscribe to SWTOR.