Well, this one really seems strange - EA and the "free game" notion seem to have nothing in common. But we should use the past tense starting now, since the giants plan to announce the development of a new game in the Battlefield series that will be distributed as a free download, according to The New York Times.

As a little history lesson, you should know that EA Sports released back in 2006 a free version of FIFA, only in South Korea and it scored high: more than five million users and over one million dollars as a monthly profit. Even though it is a free game and most of the players take it as it is and are glad to have it, there is an option to buy in-game items, like boots, jerseys or improve player attributes - that's where the profit comes from.

Still, the licensing agreements around the soccer game prevent EA to insert in-game advertisements from companies that are not sponsoring FIFA already, which means no flexibility regarding the profits. But with the Battlefield franchise, things are different: EA owns it and it can insert whatever advertisement it wants. Of course, in-game items and stuff like that will be also available for an optional purchase.

With the game scheduled for a Summer 2008 release, the company hopes the game can help point the way for Western game publishers looking to diversify beyond appealing to hard-core players with games that can cost $60 or more. This decision is backed up by two important factors: the gaming population keeps expanding beyond the traditional young males and the magic of online play seems to put everyone under a spell.

"The existing Battlefield games are fairly deep; you have to be pretty good or you'll die pretty quick," Gerhard Florin, EA's executive vice president, said in a telephone interview with The Times. "Now we've toned down the difficulty, shortened each game session to 10 or 15 minutes and made the visual style more cartoony."