Square Enix has just announced that they are now offering IO Interactive's Hitman: Blood Money for free! And you can even play it using your web browser. This is made possible by using the publisher's Core Online streaming service.
Blood Money, which was released in summer of 2006 for PC and consoles, is the second game to launch on the service. It now joins Mini Ninjas, with the excellent Lara Croft: Guardian of Light being added soon.
If you think this is too good to be true, you're right. There's a catch but it's not that bad, at least I don't think it is. In exchange for letting you play free games, players must watch video advertisments. Users will be able to earn game time by choosing from a choice of ads, and this game time can be passed on from one play session to the next. Alternatively, it will be possible to skip ads by buying individual levels or complete games.
So, free HD gaming time in exchange for watching a few video ads? Not bad, Square Enix, not bad.
Undoubtedly, you have a ton of questions, from tech specs to how these ads work. For that, I suggest combing through this FAQ.
Could this be the future of gaming and make the $60 retail game business model extinct? More importantly, are you willing to watch ads in order to play games on your browsers? Let us know what you think. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try Blood Money out if it's as good as the original using my web browser.