Electronic Arts and DICE must be quite pleased with this outcome, now that the heroes of their free to play web-based battlefield are more than a million strong. That's right - Battlefield Heroes registrations have broken the one million mark.

Good news to all PC gamers! After numerous delays, Electronic Arts and DICE has quietly released the much awaited free-to-play multiplayer action shooter game Battlefield Heroes. The cartoon style spin-off of Battlefield games was originally scheduled for release last summer has finally open its doors to the public.

Yes folks, the QJ Giveaway spree is well underway! SOE gave us a ton of beta keys so that people can try out their upcoming Free Realms MMORPG, and already, we've been able to roll out the first batch of keys to our lucky QJ.NET readers - congrats guys, you know who you are! More beta keys strung up on our belts and chains, meaning everyone's still more than welcome to join in on the fun! We've even included a full 10-minute dev walkthrough of the game in the full article, just to get you guys started. Have fun!

Everybody loves getting in on a game early, and what better way to do that than with beta keys? Since we love you guys so much, we're giving away the Free Realms  PC beta keys we have in our possession so that you can go and explore the game's extremely open world before anyone else.

Famous for creating beloved videogame software like Earthworm Jim, MDK and Messiah, designer, David Perry now busies himself with offloading seemingly arbitrary diatribes and opinions about the state of videogames. All this in between farting out the occasional crappy, free to play MMO, and carefully combing that immaculately coiffed do of his.

But... he does think EA's upcoming free to play online shooter, Battlefield Heroes is going to be a "phenomenon". Read on to find out why.

During a recent conference call, Electronic Arts revealed that Battlefield Heroes and Tiberium (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC) have both been delayed. Find out their new release windows after the jump.

"To err is human..." or so the saying goes. Electronic Arts' CEO John Riccitiello had a little something to say about learning from one's professional mistakes during a recent Q & A session. Read all about Riccitiello's responses in the full article, located after the jump.

According to a report by market intelligence firm Niko Partners, China's video game industry has surged an impressive two-thirds last year. The fifth annual report stated that the local industry has jumped a stunning 68% in 2006, in cohesion with an even larger 74% rise (since 2005) in the MMO segment of the industry.

Online gaming profits has risen to approximately US$ 995 million, which Niko Partners has attributed to the growing popularity of the free-to-play MMO business model.

According to the analysts, players have been spending more on free-to-play Asian MMO games than on Western subscription-based online games.

Also impressive is the fact that in a country fraught with piracy, legitimate offline PC title sales also rose by 28%. Analysts say that this is due to the fact that the most popular of gaming platforms there is the PC, allowing the public full use of over 20 million of them over 225,000 computer cafes nationwide.

Players who cannot afford to buy their own computer drop by at a local cafe nearest them and play networked LAN games or popular MMO titles - in a daily basis. Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of Niko Partners, also added, "The intertwined nature of China's Internet cafes, social gaming culture, and few entertainment alternatives at a low price point, will continue to be the basis for strong growth through 2011."

Even with the government restriction on consoles, some hardcore gamers have been able to grab their own console unit for gaming at home. According to Niko Partners, the console industry there (though mostly through piracy) has also seen an improvement last year.

The report, entitled "The 2007 Chinese Video Game Market Annual Review & Forecast Report," collected and reviewed 75,000 points of data from 10 major cities in China, and forecasts market trends for several segments of the gaming market: PC online, PC offline, console, handheld games and the hardware market.