Star Wars: The Old Republic, the massively multiplayer online game developed by Austin's BioWare gaming studio, has just switched over to a free-to-play model. According to reports from IGN, and details on the SWTOR site, users can now https://account.swtor.com/play-free?utm_source=(not_set)&utm_medium=marketing&utm_campaign=sor_bwa-mkt-t-us-a-002&sourceid=sor_bwa-mkt-t-us-a-002">sign up to play the game for free, without requiring a credit card. It looks like the game--which launched to much fanfare, but failed to meet expectations--is switching to a fremium/virtual currency strategy. That disappointing launch resulted in layoffs in Austin in May at Bioware, which is part of Electronic Arts.