Free 'Ad-Backed' Games the Future?

MacarooMac writes "EA Games recently announced they are to release a free online version of their PC game 'Battlefield Heroes', supported by in game adverts and micro payments. EA hopes the model of a free game as a download that is supported by advertising could be applied to other franchises it owns. For this particular title, no adverts will appear in the game itself due to incompatibility with the game's fictional world. Instead, adverts will appear on the website and the 'front-end' of the game. But many other titles can and do provide for product placement during game play itself. How long before improvements in video graphics, combined with dynamic, and perhaps even interactive in-game advertising, start to generate revenue increases that enable publishers to substantially reduce the price of their games?" Already a very common model for Eastern online titles, and being adapted here in the states by a number of companies.

More than just ad driven

[TobyWong]

Note that while BF:Heroes will be ad *supplemented* it will not be purely ad driven. They are also going with a microtransaction system where individuals can purchase perks or upgrades for their characters. They claim these will not be "competition breaking" but will be things like convenience perks (read: power levelling for your char) as well as vanity type upgrades for your chars.

Check out these vid interviews for some more info: (site is not english but the vids are)

http://www.pcgames.de/aid,629100/Interview/Ego-Shooter/Exklusives_Video-Interview_mit_den_Battlefield_Heroes-Entwicklern/ [pcgames.de]