Star Wars: The Old Republic Going Free-to-Play This Month

<p>It would seem that <em>Star Wars&colon; The Old Republic<&sol;em> is going free-to-play at some point this month&comma; as <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;swtor&period;com&sol;info&sol;news&sol;blog&sol;20121107">Bioware has come out to heavily detail the free-to-play option<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Set to occur in &&num;8216&semi;mid-November&&num;8217&semi;&comma; players that go the free route will be able to play up to level 50 without paying a thing&comma; while those that were paying subscribers before the free-to-play option rolled around will be rewarded with in-game &&num;8220&semi;Cartel Coins&&num;8221&semi; &&num;8212&semi; the amount depends on how long you&&num;8217&semi;ve been a paying member&&num;8211&semi; and several other benefits&comma; like two more quick slot bars and a new purchasable &&num;8220&semi;Cargo Hold&&num;8221&semi; tab&period; Bioware notes that they didn&&num;8217&semi;t want paying subscribers to feel like they would be getting an inferior gameplay experience from now on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This official announcement about the free-to-play model comes shortly after a <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;swtor&period;com&sol;community&sol;showthread&period;php&quest;t&equals;552536">rumor from a German fan site<&sol;a> that gave a release date of Nov 15th&period; They claimed to have been invited to a conference call in which the free-to-play option and 1&period;5 patch were mentioned&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Regardless of when the free-to-play option actually hits&comma; I imagine that <em>SWTOR<&sol;em> may see a brief increase in members in the coming weeks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;