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Star Wars: The Old Republic now free to level 15

In an effort to attract new players to the Star Wars-universe MMORPG, BioWare has announced that new subscribers will be able to play the game until their character reaches level 15.

Joseph Hanlon Special to CNET News
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Joseph Hanlon

In an effort to attract new players to the Star Wars-universe MMORPG, BioWare has announced that new subscribers will be able to play the game until their character reaches level 15, before paying the usual monthly fee.

(Credit: BioWare)

The trial is unlimited, and players can create multiple free-to-play characters across all of the game's eight classes. Each character will be able to play on the character's home world, the Capitol Zone, the Fleet, PvP Warzones and the first Flashpoint for that class. Crew Skills can be levelled to 40, but free characters cannot participate in any chat, trade or in-game mail.

Full details of the free-play characters can be found at this FAQ on the official SWTOR site.

Star Wars: The Old Republic launched in the US in December last year, and in Australia in March. At the peak of its popularity, BioWare claimed to have 1.7 million active subscribers, but this number has since begun to slide. There has also been some discussion that the game could eventually become free to play, with a BioWare designer telling GameSpot that the company is "looking into" this option.