EA inks deal to add its Play4Free titles to Aeria Games' network

“Distribution of Battlefield Heroes on Aeria Games’ Network is a natural next step as we expand the Play4Free brand,” said Sean Decker, Vice President of EA’s Play4Free brand. “Aeria Games is a frontrunner in the free-to-play games business and our titles will benefit tremendously as they reach the ever-growing global market.”

While this is good news for Aeria's millions of fans, it's still a little strange considering EA's recent push towards relying on Origin for all of their digital distribution needs. Valve recently began adding free-to-play games to Steam, and it would make sense for EA to start fully-integrating their own F2P offerings into Origin to stay competitive, instead of throwing them onto other publishers' websites (they made their free software available through BigPoint's website a few months ago, too). Then again, they're allowed to be a little less strict when it comes to free-to-play games, because most of the in-game transactions happen from within the client, instead of through the portal.

Sep 21, 2011

Hollander Cooper

Hollander Cooper was the Lead Features Editor of GamesRadar+ between 2011 and 2014. After that lengthy stint managing GR's editorial calendar he moved behind the curtain and into the video game industry itself, working as social media manager for EA and as a communications lead at Riot Games. Hollander is currently stationed at Apple as an organic social lead for the App Store and Apple Arcade.