Void: Gamersgates new system, play games free after watching advertising.

This is pretty interesting.

from Elemental Forums

Something new in the digital realm for gamers. Void.

 

Pretty much you get a limited number of slots. You can choose any game from gamergates Void library and fill those slots. Once you have selected a game you can download it.. watch a few mins of advertising then play it as much as you want. Your stuck with the game until that slot expires and you can then choose another game. But it costs the user nothing.. and there are some interesting games available. (mainly older or less known titles but we aren't talking about flash games here)

 

I'll play with it more when I get time and report back. But it brings up an interesting model.. we've taken advantage of the fact that advertisers pay for network television for years.. why not gaming.

 

http://www.gamersgate.com/void

 

 

31,473 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Got that e-mail earlier today and activated it immedietly. Haven't tried it though and not sure I'll do it in the immediate future since I got a great backlog (everybody have that these days....)

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top


You mean: "free", not free. This industry is poison.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Update: So here's the deal.. I got one slot. Added Crusader Kings to it. Downloaded it. Started it up.. watched adds and played.I did run into some difficulty.. since it was tabbing out when my Fire wall would ask if I should allow it.. the ads wouldn't run and the game wouldn't start. Adding it as a permanent exception fixed it.

 

Note every time you start the game you'll have to sit through about 1 min of ads, and the slot expires in about 2 weeks. So in 2 weeks I'll either be able to keep playing CK if i choose or Choose a different game.


Game selection. Right now As I noted above its mainly older or lesser known titles. Quite a few Paradox titles(if you've never played the paradox classics like crusader kings, HOI2 or EU2 They are all there). I really think this is a good idea for older games. At some point sales of a game thats a few years old probably drops to the point where its actually more profitable to switch to a free to the user advertiser based revenue. I can see more older games jumping on to this, so while the selection may grow I don't think we will ever see brand new games on it. Similar to how Network Television tends to get movies some years after the DVDs have been on sale.

I think its a brilliant idea for creating revenue from older titles. The Question is how many publishers agree with me.

 

Quoting KlaxXxon, reply 3
"Coming Soon To Your Country"
End of KlaxXxon's quote

 

Ya its been released in NA and some European countries.. its not a worldwide release yet. I should have mentioned that in my OP.