In conversation with Joystiq, Bioware representatives Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have defended their choice to use a subscription-based model for Star Wars: The Old Republic and I think it's probably unlikely to expect the new hit MMO to go free-to-play any time soon.
"You look at the online space in general and it's fragmenting into all these different areas, but the core still works. The subscription model still works," Zeschuk said. "We know a lot of people say, 'Oh, everything's just going free-to-play.' But that's just one slice. There's one slice that's free-to-play, there's one slice that's social, there's traditional subscription still going."
"I'm not saying it's better or worse. It just doesn't supplant the other things. 'Cause we can do some things no one else can," he added. "The free-to-play people can't invest to the level we can invest, and can't create something of the size and scale of something we can create."