The growing interest of traditional video game publishers in casual games looks like creating new hybrid formats and experimental business models.
Electronic Arts has announced its first completely free title, Battlefield Heroes, available for download this summer.
It looks like a dumbed-down cartoon-like version of its Battlefield 1942 PC game, but still seems far more sophisticated than a typical casual game such as Texas Hold ‘Em or Bejeweled.
There will also be elements of the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) genre, dominated by World of Warcraft. EA says players will be able to build their characters in an ever-expanding online world, paying a few dollars in micro-transactions for extra weapons and equipment. In-game advertising is also planned.
The success of Microsoft’s Xbox Live service has revealed there is money to be made from smaller-scale games, available for download there for less than $10.
EA is reinventing and repurposing an existing fading franchise. If it is successful, expect to see more of EA’s original IP appearing in a casualised form, aimed at less-than-hard-core gamers.
