For those who havent heard, Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) is an MMO developed by Mass Effect developer BioWare, based in the Star Wars universe which launched late last year (2011). After an overall successful launch, a series of in-game flaws have plagued the games success ever since, causing their subscription rates to fall into steady decline. As a solution to this problem, many have called for the studio to make the game free-to-play, however BioWare has proved hesitant to commit. Starting in July, BioWare has announced that SWTOR will be taking baby steps towards a possible free-to-play model by waiving the subscription fee until players reach level fifteen. But what about a completely free model? During an interview with PC Gamer, BioWares James Ohlen had a few things to say about the possibility of creating a free republic. "I think it can work for different games," said James when asked for his opinion on a free-to-play model. "It really depends on how you go with your game. Games that have been built to be free-to-play from the start definitely work out. "Now, there have been games that werent free to play from the start and transferred over to becoming free to play that have worked as well. But its definitely not something thats super easy to do." Regardless of Ohlens views on a free-to-play model may be, BioWare had better think fast about a solution to their fleeing player base. As of earlier this month, SWTOR has lost about 400,000 players -- thats nearly 25 percent of its subscribers -- since launch day, dropping from 1.7 to roughly 1.3 million subscribers. It takes a crew to save a sinking ship, which BioWare certainly has, but only the future will tell what happens to their galaxy far, far away.