The redesignedGameHouse front page

The best things in life are free, or so the song goes--and that goes double for those toiling in our troubled economic times. But according to John Barbour, the recently appointed president of RealNetworks' games division, the economy is just part of the reason why, starting today, the company's GameHouse casual games site will offer a new free casual game for download. Every day. For the foreseeable future. The first title to be made available under this offer is the hidden object game Mortimer Becket and the Time Paradox, which is currently the most popular title at GameHouse.

"The gaming world has really gone through a bit of a revelation," Barbour says. "People thought games were about processing power, but it's about great games," he adds, citing the success of the Wii, the record-setting subscriber base for World of Warcraft, and the growing prominence of casual games. He reminded us that GameHouse had already announced a partnership with Capcom to bring games like Mortimer Beckett and the Secrets of Spooky Manor to the Wii; Tropix to the DS, and that it even has a WiiWare title, Boingz, going live on November 24th. (We inquired about Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network; Barbour said that those platforms could become more viable for GameHouse titles as their audiences broadened further.)

Barbour's goal is to get existing gamers to try his company's games as well as non-gamers who may be curious, but have been reluctant to try their titles out. The Web is, of course, chock full of free Flash-based games, but even though Barbour and his crew may face some challenges breaking through the clutter, he says they're up to it. "It's about the experience and branding over the long term," he says. "Someone can come to a site like ours and get quality games for free. No-one with our scale and experience is offering that right now." We're curious ourselves to see what kind of response this free-game-of-the-day offer receives.

To read GameHouse's press release in its entirety, click on the link below.

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