Battlefield Heroes ushers in Play 4 Free gaming

by Dean Evans at Tuesday 14th July, 2009 at 5:46 pm [0 comments]

Up until now, the traditional model for selling videogames has been ‘put it on a disc (or a cartridge), stick it in a box and sell it at retail’. In contrast, EA’s new Battlefield Heroes game is available online, can be played in a web browser and won’t cost you a penny.

EA calls this approach ‘Play 4 Free’. The cartoon shooter requires an EA account get started, but there’s no charge to play. Instead, Battlefield Heroes hopes to generate its cash through advertising and micro-transactions. Players are encouraged to modify their virtual soldiers by purchasing clothing and weapons upgrades.

According to VentureBeat, EA focused on creating a web site that included “chat forums, leaderboards, friend systems, battle stats and groups that allow players to compete in teams… Players can earn Valor points through battle experience, and they can buy BattleFunds with credit cards or PayPal accounts.”

The Play 4 Free model is already established in the Far East, where free online games often draw 5-10 million players.

“We’ve learned so much in this process,” says Ben Cousins, general manager of the development team. “When we started two years ago, there was a real question mark. Can the free-to-play model work as it did in Asia? The answer is an emphatic yes.”

It’s yet another example of how digital distribution is changing the way we consume our content in the modern digital home.

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