EA wants you to know that their Play4Free, or Freemium, titles are all the rage these days.
EA took time out of its busy schedule today to announce that the community of players enjoying their free-to-play browser-based games has reached 25 million players.
The company, admittedly, has done quite well for themselves in the free-to-play business in recent years with the launch of Battlefield Heroes and Need for Speed World, both of which have reached 10 million registered users earlier this month. Their other not so popular games including Battlefield Play4Free, Dragon Age Legends, Battleforge and Lord of Ultima have brought the total number of players to that magical 25 million number that they are boasting today.
To celebrate, EA has decided to give something back to the community playing their most popular freemium games. For Battlefield Heroes players, they can redeem the code EQ9M-TYYT-TXR3-5GU3 for 300 Battlefunds, the in-game currency that can be used to purchase in-game weapons, vanity items (i.e. hats) and more.
The same promotion is available for Need For Speed World, players can enter in the code EWPD-3KGA-VBVF-9HYS for 750 SpeedBost, the differently named but still the same in-game currency that can be used for the purchase of new cars, performance upgrades and more.
Those codes had better be used quickly though as they expire on January 17. After that, it’s back to paying real money for that in-game currency. I’m sure EA would appreciate your continued patronage.
“Developing a community of 25 million players is a remarkable achievement. It is a testament to the explosive growth of the free-to-play market and a reflection of EA’s commitment to spearheading the digital transformation. We plan to continue to innovate in the category, introduce new gameplay that delights players and keeps them coming back for more,” Sean Decker, Play4Free, Vice President, said. “For our teams, this is an incredibly exciting time to be making games as the audience continues to grow and diversify.”
Since the launch of Battlefield Heroes, EA has found that 8 billion bullets have been fired with nearly 532 million in-game kills. Those numbers clearly indicating that players have terrible accuracy or they just like wasting bullets.
For those who prefer exotic cars over exotic cartoon soldiers, Need For Speed World is releasing a series of new cars starting with the 2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S that went live on January 10.
EA also announced in December that their newest freemium title would be adapting the popular strategy series into a browser-based strategy MMO in the form of Command and Conquer Tiberium Alliances. Chances are it will be better than Command and Conquer 4.
How do you feel about free-to-play games? Are they the new “it” thing that EA makes them out to be? Do you play any of them? Let us know in the comments.