CoreOnline, the new cloud gaming service announced by Square Enix and made in conjunction with Google, is offering free playtime for those who are willing to watch ads.
The browser-based service will "allow users to easily play popular, console quality games on the web." It works like this: users can gather minutes of free playtime by choosing to watch an ad before playing. Those who don’t wish to watch an ad will have the opportunity to skip it by purchasing either individual levels or the entire game.
Currently, the only games available are Mini Ninjas ans Hitman: Blood Money. Joystiq explains that while Mini Ninjas simply redirects to the Chrome Web Store where a streaming version is already available, Blood Money plays directly in the CoreOnline store. Loading the game leads to a prompt asking the user to pick an ad, in this case providing 10 minutes of free play. Different ads “earn” the player different amounts of free play time: for instance, a Kohl’s 1:17 ad is worth 26 minutes, whereas a seven-second Samsung Series 9 ad is worth only five minutes.
CoreOnline will have more games added to it, including Lara Croft: Guardian of Light, coming in October. Gyromancer and Tomb Raider: Underworld will also be coming to the platform.
Currently, on Windows 7, the available games support Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer 8. On Mac, Mini Ninjas and Lara Croft will only be available in Chromeand Blood Money does not presently work at all.
