Battlefield Hero
Battlefield Hero is an animation, action packed shoot-em-up game for the PC.
In an interesting move, the makers of this software game (Electronic Arts) have decided to simply give the game away free. Yes, thats right – you can get Battlefield Hero for no cost. (Probably to ward off computer software pirates, but at the same time – surely the game developers need to make money from the game)
One way to make a profit for EA with Battlefield Hero – is to use advertising to recoup some dollars. Not adverts while you play the game (as this would be painful!) Smartly, EA have added advertisers keen to be involved on their website (and the Battlefield Hero page) – also at the completion of the game, the credits on battlefield hero throw up some advertisers and this doesn’t harm the overall gameplay! Smart move EA!
Another unique move, is that EA offers the purchase of the following components / items within the game itself – the Kommendant’s Coat, the Special Forces Officer Cap, Maverik’s Sunglasses, the Elite Camo Trousers and the Marksman’s Honor.
Gamers can also spend money on widgets, get their heros new and unique abilities and buy more powerful weapons, and other side items such as emotes (the weird robot jiggy dance is a big laugh, well worth a look!) again, very different and could be a way that gamers will pull money out of their pockets and back into the battlefield hero game.
EA have also developed this game to run on a very low spec PC. They graphics are good enough, but by letting it run on basic PC specs it will open the market up massively to even more gamers and home computers. Existing games like Runescape, Guild Wars and even World of Warcraft have also done this to good effect, both dont need powerful processors in the PC so can be played anywhere. (Note, all these games are big at LAN cafes and gaming centres, so Battlefield Hero could do the same!)
Load times for battlefield hero are also very, very sharp. Quickly getting into the game within 20 seconds for most PCs.
EA has opened up the doors to new markets for themselves, given the following
* Dont need to make physical plastic and cardboard inventory. (less production costs)
* No mailing, courier costs, warehousing and other logistics costs.
* No middle man in the sale of the game, all the profit rolls into to EA.
* Pirates are immediately shut out, they cant get a piece of the pie.
* A long tail. It effectively costs EA nothing to keep this up on their server for ever. And players will be buying in-game stuff for a long time to come. The exact opposite of a retail game that gets thrown off the shelf after a short life.
* Potential to refresh the game to maintain interest. For instance currently it is third person only, first person could easily be added later to give a whole new gaming experience.
* Reaching new markets. Getting to 133 markets means they can reach Mongolia, Sudan and lots of other places where it is not worth setting up distribution for physical stock. But all added together they will now make a nice contribution to profits and allow EA to build for the future.
* Enhanced direct relationship with game player. This is immensely valuable and can be leveraged in a myriad of ways.
The new niche of go-to market for the likes of EA with Battlefield Heroe has added to the many application online shops and the various business models on Xbox Live have radically brought forward the day when high street retail has no relevance to the video game industry.
