The Office of Fair Trading in London has announced that they are investigating free-to-play games to make sure that they are following all corners of the law. More specifically, the London-based regulators are investigating whether or not these types of games are unfairly pressuring gamers into making in-app purchases.
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- Google Glass Original Prototype eyes-on with Isabelle Olsson
- Google Glass creators talk of final consumer device release
- Google I/O 2013 on-site Wrap-up: Glass, Developers, and Services on tap
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‘freemium’ Stories
UK government investigating free-to-play games over unlawful microtransactions
EA says freemium model is most popular amongst gamers
Electronic Arts' Real Racing 3 was the first time that the series had gone to a freemium model, with in-app purchases being the money-maker for the company. However, while users can download the game for free, many folks weren't too pleased that restrictions were put on the game because of the $0.00 price tag. However, EA thinks that's what gamers want most.
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Angry Birds for iOS now available for free
After the game's initial release in December of 2009, the original Angry Birds game for iOS is now completely free to download. Both the iPhone and iPad versions are available to download at no cost. Previously the game was priced at $0.99 for the iPhone/iPod Touch version and $2.99 for the "HD" variant.
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FreedomPop Hub Burst now available for $89, offers 1GB/month for free
Back in December, we told you about the new Hub Burst wireless router from FreedomPop, which costs $89 up front, but it gives you 1GB of data per month for free, with $10/month getting you 10GB. The router is available now, and it's meant to support a household of usage, but as long as you're not streaming movies if you want to keep the free plan.
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App.net goes freemium, is still invite-only
App.net, the new social media service that looks to take on Twitter in a new and interesting way, is now a freemium service. Initially, it launched as a paid-only service after the project was successfully funded, but the company announced today that its introducing a free tier for those who don't want to pay up a monthly fee. However, those who want to become free members will still have to wait for an invite.
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Hawken shows off excellent visuals in PhysX trailer
As far as free-to-play titles go, Hawken already looks pretty great. The game supports NVIDIA PhysX, which adds a bit more eye candy over non-PhysX games, including improved weapon and particle effects. Those PhysX-enabled visuals are about to get another boost, though, thanks the addition of a previously missing PhysX feature: APEX Turbulence.
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Call of Duty Online enters alpha testing in China
The success of Call of Duty in the west is unquestionable, but over in the east it's a bit of a different story. That's particularly true in China, where the games industry is dominated by freemium-type games. Activision, never wanting to let an opportunity go to waste, has changed up the Call of Duty we know and love a bit to make it appeal more to Chinese gamers with today's release of Call of Duty Online.
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Heroes of Newerth announces security breach
Online games can be a ton of fun (provided you're playing with the right people), but unfortunately their popularity makes them frequent targets of hackers. Heroes of Newerth, a MOBA game that's pretty popular despite the stiff competition from the likes of League of Legends, is apparently the latest online game to fall victim to a security breach. The game's developers announced the breach early this morning on the Heroes of Newerth forums.
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Star Wars: The Old Republic goes free-to-play next week
We've known for a while now that Electronic Arts and BioWare are planning to take Star Wars: The Old Republic free-to-play, but for months, both companies were silent on an actual date for the switch. That all changed today, with Electronic Arts confirming that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be going free-to-play worldwide on November 15. That's exactly one week from today, so those of you who have been waiting for the switch don't have much longer to go before it actually happens.
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Star Wars: The Old Republic free-to-play limitations detailed
We've known for a while now that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be going free-to-play, but at first, neither BioWare nor Electronics Arts wanted to get into details when it came to restrictions for free players. Today, we might be finding out why the companies kept these details a secret for so long. BioWare has listed the free-to-play limitations on the SWTOR official site, and as it turns out, players who don't want to pay anything to play are going to have a lot of restrictions to deal with.
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Visceral Games reportedly working on new MOBA title
Multiplayer online battle arena games - "MOBA" for short - are all the rage these days, and it looks like Dead Space developer Visceral Games is ready to get in on the action. IGN has discovered a series of Visceral job postings on the Gamasutra jobs board that all suggest the developer is looking to craft a free-to-play MOBA title. The game would presumably be released as part of EA's Play4Free division, which means that it could launch on social platforms like Facebook.
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Ubisoft claims 93-95% piracy rate on its PC games
Piracy on PC is a big deal for publishers, but Ubisoft always seems to be in the spotlight when there's a new story on piracy or DRM. It's hardly a secret that Ubisoft has major issues with piracy, but before it's never really gotten down to hard numbers. Today, that changed in an interview with GamesIndustry International, in which Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that Ubisoft experiences a piracy rate of 93-95% on its PC games.
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