Damion Schubert, former lead designer on Star Wars: The Old Republic, will share lessons learned from the MMORPG’s remarkably successful conversion from subscription-based to free-to-play in his GDC 2015 talk “Free-to-Play Is Not (Necessarily) Evil.” Schubert believes the success of games like League of Legends and Star Wars: The Old Republic show that free-to-play games are no longer just a distant possibility for AAA developers — the future is now, and we need to adapt. There’s big success to be had within the bounds of F2P design, but if done carelessly it can alienate your fans. Attend his GDC 2015 talk if you’d like some insight on avoiding such pitfalls from those who have gone before. Topics will include things like building team buy-in of the new world order, rethinking how your customer base is divided, maximizing spend from happy whales, and most importantly, how success still depends on players falling in love with your game. His talk is part of the perennially popular Free To Play Summit, just one of the eight that will take place Monday, March 2nd and Tuesday, March 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco during the first two days of GDC 2015. Full details on Schubert’s talk and many others can be perused on the list of all announced sessions available now in the online GDC 2015 Session Scheduler, where you can begin to plan out your conference week and later export it to the up-to-the-minute GDC Mobile App, coming soon. And as 2014 winds to a close, conference officials look forward to announcing many more GDC 2015 sessions spanning a diverse array of game industry issues in the months ahead. For now, don’t miss the opportunity to save money by registering early — the deadline to register for passes at a discounted rate is January 21, 2015. GDC 2015 itself will take place March 2-6 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For more information on GDC 2015, visit the show’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech.
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