There’s nothing wrong with what The Old Republic is doing. But it does raise the question – why is World of Warcraft the only MMORPG that seems immune to this trend? Blizzard has made some concessions to the changing face of online gaming in introducing a free-to-play option, up till level 20, but even as subscriber numbers drop, shows no sign of shifting to a micro-transaction business mode.

I suspect the reason there is room for just one major subscription MMORPG is that the genre hasn’t evolved far enough to expand its user base. I have argued elsewhere that MMORPG’s aren’t friendly enough to new players; developers are so focused at taking a slice of World of Warcraft’s pie, by making “WoW with better story” or “WoW with better character progression,” that they fail to acknowledge that even World of Warcraft doesn’t have the universal appeal needed to sustain a subscription model.

Arguably Xbox Live is the most versatile MMORPG. And it keeps growing.

Well said, Adam.