Yahoo to offer free ad-supported games

By Tim Conneally | Published July 10, 2008, 6:43 PM

Yahoo has announced that it will be offering ad-subsidized versions of popular casual games for download, and anticipates as many as 400 will be available by the end of the year.

Yahoo Games prominently features games with unlimited free trial versions as well as for-pay downloads. Today, the company announced it will be adding free, ad-supported versions of those downloads.

The company expects more than 400 ad-supported games by the end of the year, coming from Alawar Entertainment, Anarchy, Big Fish Games, eGames, Floodgate, Freeze Tag, FreshGames, Funkitron, Gogii Games, GameHouse, Gamemill Publishing, HipSoft, I-Play, iWin, Last Day of Work, Legacy Interactive, Ludia, MumboJumbo, pixelStorm, PlayFirst, Playrix Entertainment, PopCap, Reflexive Entertainment, Sandlot Games, Sugar Games, TellTale Games, TikGames, uclick, Worldwide Biggies and Zero G Games.

These games will feature pre-, mid-, and post-roll advertisement delivered by ad company NeoEdge, and served on the fusion.runtime technology from Double Fusion.

In other areas of ad-supported gaming, EA, which has been testing the model on its Battlefield franchise with the Pixar-inspired Battlefield Heroes, is also expected to launch its game before the summer is out.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

This is sounds like good news. I have friends who are retired and they play a lot of the BigFish games and this well free up some finances for them. A lot of those are 20.00 a piece and I count 17 on their computers.

Ads on games are nothing new.

Score: 0

|

If they join the BigFish club the games are only 6.99 each. I have the feeling your friends went for that option.

Score: 0

|

Free games, I'm all for it. Don't mind an advert or two.

Score: 0

|

yes i agree with mfaccone
http://www.magnewin.com

Score: 0

|

Swing from a tree in the wind, spammer.

Score: 0

|

I think its a step in the right direction. PopCap and GameHouse are pretty well known and with the f2p games it could make them even more money. I hope it works out for them

Score: 0

|

Just what we need... more Adware

Score: 0

|

snore, MSN has done this for years!!

be original guys, thats what you've gotta do if you wanna win!

Score: 0

|

Okay... well there's something that Google isn't doing... Yahoo would actually do themselves a HUGE favor at pushing their gaming portal to the forefront of what they provide...

Score: 0

|

Google Chrome 4: Yes, it's fast, but is it usable?

As Betanews readers have responded to our stories about Chrome's JavaScript superiority...Does that mean we'd actually use this browser? Well...

Video: Netflix on PlayStation 3

Netflix has come to the PlayStation 3 via Blu-ray and BD-Live.

Verizon Wireless launches new Android, Chocolate, and ruggedized phones

The lower-priced Eris joins the Droid, while the Chocolate gets a touchscreen and more music playback.

Early sales figures for Windows 7 nicely high, but do we know why?

Fans of triple-digit surges in figures quoted by Betanews will love this one, as it appears Microsoft rediscovered how to pull off a software launch.

Myka announces its latest Linux-based 'net top box'

Myka's ION brings Boxee, XMBC, and much more to HDTVs.

What hath Mac wrought? A remembrance after a quarter-century

The reason there's a Macintosh today is not because of some brilliant flash of engineering genius, but because Apple had the audacity to learn from its mistakes.

Early build of Moblin 2.1 improves connectivity, but not device support

The Linux Foundation's Atom-centric OS yesterday received a major overhaul with the project release of Moblin 2.1 for netbooks and nettops.

The iPhone's China syndrome: Sales of 5,000 and climbing

There's actually a country where Apple's device is not a godsend, where sales can be measured in the dozens.

New European counterpart to FCC will ensure 'a more neutral net'

Late Thursday night, the ruling telecom administrators of the EU's member nations signed away their final authority to a new entity overseen by the EC.

Sophos study suggests Windows 7 UAC's default setting is self-defeating

Without any anti-virus installed, a Sophos test showed, User Account Control was only capable of thwarting just one malware package out of ten samples chosen.

Indiscreet tweet trips awareness of Web SSL vulnerability

A group of high-level security engineers had been making progress on thwarting a low-level threat to the Web, until somebody blurted it all out on Twitter.