Battlefield-Heroes posts

Just ahead of the official open beta launch of Battlefield Play4Free, Ben Cousins, the head of Electronic Arts' free-to-play game division EA Easy, has announced that he is leaving the publisher. Cousins made the announcement today on his Twitter page. He did not announce where he is going next, saying only, " ... soon as I can, I let everyone know."

Cousins helped to lead the EA Easy division for the past four years, launching games like Battlefield Heroes, Lord of Ultima and Battle Forge (which actually started as a traditional retail box game). The first person shooter Battlefield Play4Free officially launches its open beta today for players of Battlefield Bad Company 1 and 2 and Battlefield Heroes. The game's Twitter and Facebook followers get access the open beta on April 2 and everyone else can play the game on April 4.

[Via Gamesindustry.biz]

PC gamers have seen more and more games priced at $60. At the same time PC gamers have also seen the rise of the "free-to-play" business model for games. One of the leaders of the latter model is Electronic Arts who has a number of such games either online now (Battlefield Heroes, Battle Forge, Lord of Ultima) or in the works (Battlefield Play4Free, pictured above).

The head of EA's play-for-free games division, Easy Studios, is Ben Cousins and in a chat with Rock Paper Shotgun he doesn't mince words by saying, "I can't think of anything more exploitative than gating all of your content behind having to pay someone $60." He adds that games that are priced so high can be a "really harsh business model" compared to what his division is trying to do. He states, "What we do is enable everyone to play the game, and figure out if they like it. If they don't like it they can walk away and they don't lose anything."

Battlefield Heroes has now reached the 7 million registered user mark, according to a new press release from the game's publisher Electronic Arts. To celebrate, the game's players will be getting some special "7" themed extras in the browser-based free-to-play multiplayer shooter.

Starting today and through March 15, all players will receive a special in-game pack just for logging in that will include 77 bandages, 77 Battlefunds and 77 wrenches. Also, players who use 777 Battlefunds can get another pack that gives their characters a 7 day XP boost, a 7 day VP boost, a 7 day Sarge's stamina boost and 777 tonics.

As we have reported previously, EA has a second similar game, Battlefield Play4Free, that is currently in closed beta testing.

Last December, the free-to-play shooter Battlefield Heroes from developer Digital Illusions announced that a portion of the proceeds from selling two in-game outfits, the Santa Holiday Set and the Nikolaus Holiday Set will be given to the game-related Child's Play children's hospital charity. Today the game's web site announced that the total amount raised last month from the sales of those items was $ 4,594.

The game's publisher Electronic Arts said that it would match the contributions if the total went over $8,000. While the final amount fell well short of that goal, EA decided to go ahead and match the fund anyway, bringing the final total raised for Child's Play up to $9,188.

Electronic Arts knows how to do some cross promotion marketing for upcoming games. Today the free-to-play shooter Battlefield Heroes have put in some new outfits that look suspiciously like the space suits worn by characters in the Dead Space series.

For a limited time, you can purchase the Titan Security Set and/or the CEC Advanced Set from Battlefield Heroes' online store which will make your character look like the sci-fi leads of the upcoming sci-fi survival horror game Dead Space 2. Both outfits include access to personal jetpacks to get your head above the battles. You can check out a trailer showing off the new outfits after the jump.

Remember 2008? The year where pretty much everyone was saying that in-game advertising was going to explode and become a huge revenue generator for the game industry? Well that was before the global recession pretty much stopped the ad business in its tracks. Even though things are "better" than they were at the start of the recession, it looks like at least one publisher is focusing on another revenue track.

That would be Electronic Arts. In a new chat over at Edge, the head of the publisher's free-to-play division Ben Cousins states, "We actually aren't getting much from ad revenue at all. The in-game advertising business hasn't grown as fast as people expected it to." The more accepted way to fund a free-to-play game is via microtransactions which are a part of, among other games, EA's online shooter Battlefield Heroes. Cousins states, "If you think about how fast the virtual goods business has grown in the last year or so, it's been much quicker and become a much more reliable source of revenue." EA will soon launch yet another free-to-play game with a microtransaction mode, Battlefield Play4Free.

On this first day of Advent, the Battlefield Heroes free-to-play multiplayer shooter is opening up its own Advent calendar. For the next 24 days there will be new holiday-themed content that will be unlocked every day for players of the game. That includes things like new holiday themed outfits for your characters to new scoped-based weapons. You can check out some of what will be included in the updates in the above YouTube video.

But that's not all. Battlefield Heroes is also offering the chance for players to help others with their in-game purchases. A portion of the sales of the game's new Santa Holiday Set and the Nikolaus Holiday Set will be given to the game-related Child's Play children's hospital charity.

In the last couple of years we have seen the free-to-play PC game industry explode here in the US and also in Europe as players have embraced the type of games that got its start in Asia. At first the visual look for those games have been primitive compared to high end PC and console games but the level of graphics have improved greatly.

Today Electronic Arts announced Battlefield Play4Free, its newest free-to-play game and one that has graphics that come closer to the look of the Battlefield retail products. Develop reports that at the London Games Conference this week the head of the division behind the game said the free-to-play model could be a serious threat to the console game industry.

EA Easy head Ben Cousins stated, "At what point do the hardcore gamers switch over from spending $60 a month on console games to spending that much a month on microtransactions for an online title?" He added that its possible that within two to five years the free-to-play model could " ... cause a significant disruption to the traditional triple-A console market."

With today's Battlefield Play4Free announcement, what does this mean for the future of Electronic Arts' first free-to-play multiplayer shooter Battlefield Heroes? In a post on the game's official web site, the team assures its players that Battlefield Heroes is not being forgotten and will continue to be supported and updated. In fact upcoming updates to the game will include two more unnamed game modes, new scoped guns, a Christmas update with snow on the battlefield and a way to play the game dressed as the main character from another upcoming EA game, Dead Space 2.

Battlefield Heroes players who win one round in the game before the start of the open beta of Battlefield Play4Free will get a guarentted spot in the beta test. Players in the closed and open beta of Battlefield Play4Free who win a round in Battlefield Heroes will get special forum tags and in-game medals in both games.

As promised earlier this week, Electronic Arts has announced a new game in the Battlefield series. Battlefield Play4Free (yeah, it's an awkward title) is being developed by the same development team that made the previous free-to-play PC game Battlefield Heroes.

This new first person shooter game is set in the modern day and has a more realisitic art style than the cartoony look of Battlefield Heroes. It will have support for up to 32 players and combines maps found in Battlefield 2 with some of the classes and weapons that are in the most recent game Battlefield Bad Company 2. Players will level up as they play the game and as with Battlefield Heroes will use in-game money to purchase new weapons and other items.

The game's official web site is already taking sign-ups for the game's closed beta test which is scheduled to begin on November 30. Open beta is scheduled to begin in early 2011 and the final version will launch in spring 2011.