A new report by analyst Yuanzhe Cai, broadband and gaming director at Parks Associates, suggests that MMORPG companies have a greater chance of penetrating the market if they offer free titles and adopt a microtransaction-based business model.

According to a consumer study of more than 2,000 US online gamers, ‘social, dormant, and leisure gamers all show significant interest in a free-to-play, microtransaction-based model’, while only ‘power gamers’ are interested in subscribing to an MMORPG service.

The study found that fourteen percent of gamers not currently playing MMORPGs would be interested in playing if they could play for free, while only two percent of gamers from the same group were interested in adopting an MMORPG with the traditional subscription-based model.

"World of Warcraft, with over 10 million players, exceeded expectations for subscription-based MMORPGs, but it's unlikely any other publishers will achieve the same in the near term using a subscription model," said Cai.

"Free-to-play models offer flexibility, and players can choose how much they want to invest based on interest level and play patterns. Microtransaction models have the best potential to grow the US MMORPG audience."