It’s starting to look like this whole “free-to-play”
thing might be sticking around. EA has announced a deal with Aeria Games,
publisher of Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine and WolfTeam, to bring EA’s selection
of free-to-play games to their network. It’s going to start with Battlefield
Heroes and continue with Need for Speed World, bringing EA’s Play4Free games to
an even wider audience.
“Distribution of Battlefield Heroes on Aeria Games’ Network is a natural next step as we expand the Play4Free brand,” said Sean Decker, Vice President of EA’s Play4Free brand. “Aeria Games is a frontrunner in the free-to-play games business and our titles will benefit tremendously as they reach the ever-growing global market.”
While this is good news for Aeria's millions of fans, it's still a little strange considering EA's recent push towards relying on Origin for all of their digital distribution needs. Valve recently began adding free-to-play games to Steam, and it would make sense for EA to start fully-integrating their own F2P offerings into Origin to stay competitive, instead of throwing them onto other publishers' websites (they made their free software available through BigPoint's website a few months ago, too). Then again, they're allowed to be a little less strict when it comes to free-to-play games, because most of the in-game transactions happen from within the client, instead of through the portal.
Sep 21, 2011
Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
GamesRadar is the premiere source for everything that matters in the world of video games. Casual or core, console or handheld - whatever systems you own or whatever genres you love, GamesRadar is there to filter out what's worth your time and to help you get even more from your games. We deliver the best advice, the most in-depth features, expert reviews, and the essential guides for all the top games.
|
|
Log in using Facebook to share comments, games, status update and other activity easily with your Facebook feed.
Del.icio.us
Reddit.com
Facebook
Slashdot.org
Google Bookmarks
N4G
Stumbleupon.com
xinyin - September 22, 2011 10:27 a.m.