Minecraft also increased to absurb popularity during beta. It makes sense that the creator would want to make some money for the official release.
Most companies have to use the F2P model now because competition is so fierce. Look at all the games on Steam. There are too many games, ermahgerd! You either have to have some incredibly innovative technology and aggressive marketing, or go F2P and seep into the right crowds with something catchy/innovative/popular so that it starts marketing itself.
Ah competition. That does work to some extent. But along with it comes expectations and preconceptions. You would think that with all the F2P games out there, the next one would be different more so than just by story and art.
Speaking of marketing, player made content does that as well. Look at all the games coming out on steam with Steam Workshop. Putting the player right into the gameās creation process and allowing them to make content others can use. I never heard of Arma 2 until I heard about DayZ. And in fact, Dota was just a starcraft/warcraft mod and is now the number one played game on steam.
perfect world entertainment has in my mind the best F2P model that i have seen so far. iāve been playing star trek online since beta and never felt as though they were attacking my wallet. neverwinter was designed using what they had learned and implemented in STO. considering the ZEN market perfect world uses for their games is more for cosmetic changes than for competitive changes. the foundry mission creator has itās share of hits and misses but the fact perfect world doesnāt allow for the creators to set loot tables (a source of many complaints) makes it even better because it doesnāt allow anyone to become overpowered.
SWTOR on the other hand in their F2P model just went for the money grab.