Anecdotal but from what I recall, the freemium model was an import from Korean MMOs which then got cross pollinated to other systems. As I remember it Western

Anecdotal but from what I recall, the freemium model was an import from Korean MMOs which then got cross pollinated to other systems. As I remember it Western MMOs/games focused on the subscription model, aside from WoW were suffering but were aware of the Free 2 play model in Asia. That got imported over and soon after it was shown to be viable, the idea propogated through the system So the original model is pretty old, and that is also the first place I heard about a freemium model before it began being heard in non-gaming enterprises.