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EA unveils plans for free video game

Posted by Michael Gay on January 22, 2008

In a shift for Electronic Arts here in the U.S., the video game company announced today their plans to release Battlefield Heroes as a free game this summer. EA calls the game a fun cartoon-style shooter which caters to players of all skill levels. The interesting strategy won’t be the gameplay, but the way the company plans to make money: with in-game advertisements and microtransactions. Games usually run consumers $60 or more. The NYTimes has the backstory on a similar move EA made in Korea with a FIFA soccer game. According to the Times, EA “said it has signed up more than five million Korean users and generates more than $1 million in monthly in-game sales.” What’s your reaction?

Jordan

Wasn’t there a story that even in-game advertising, gamers still ignore them and dont remember the brands being forced at them?
http://jeremiahjacobs.com Jeremiah

EA got a glimpse of the balance sheets at Blizzard (World of Warcraft) and decided they wanted some of that longer term income versus a “detonation” campaign to sell the most shiny discs in a week.

The future of brands is building social communities around them. Your brand *is* your community.
http://www.instantaction.com Curt

From a games industry point of view (I’m at GarageGames, which is introducing an FPS called Legions through an online environment called InstantAction), this is excellent news. Well, less the in-game ads which are not our bag, but the recognition that the browser itself is becoming a platform for more and more, including games. There’s a continuing integration of different electronic/communications/entertainment worlds that used to be generically separate.
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