EA demoed it’s cartoony entry to the free to play, microtransaction title Battlefield Heroes again yesterday at the EA Summer Showcase.

Lead by Swedish development firm DICE, Battlefield Heroes builds upon DICE’s successful Battlefield franchise.  After making a name for itself with Battlefield 1942, DICE moved on to tackle Battlefield Vietnam, created a futuristic offshoot, and successfully reinvented it for console play.

While Battlefield Heroes shares a number of traits with it’s predecessors, it also differs in a number of ways.  Obviously, first and foremost is the free to play, microtransaction based business model.  While the game will be supported primarily (for now) by in game, between battle, and website  advertisements.

The second departure stems from the overall graphics of the game.  Bucking the trend of ever more ‘realistic’ shooters, Battlefield Heroes play centers around a cartoony, ‘feel good’ design.  If Team Fortress 2 comes to mind, you’re on the right track.  However DICE’s Ben Cousins is quick to point out that, “Battlefield Heroes focuses on a mixture of vehicle and infantry combat in large, open environments.  We’ve also got a full MMO-style leveling-up and character-customization system. We’re also free to play, with really low system specs. We’re designed for a much more casual audience than Team Fortress. We’re third-person, and we’re really focused on a fun, easy-to-get-into, accessible gameplay. I’m a big fan of Team Fortress and have been playing it since the Quake version, but it’s still a pretty hardcore game. Heroes, with our matchmaking system, is much more focused on bringing a new audience in to shooters.  Everything else we’re doing is different. “

The third and biggest differentiator is the skill system.  Each class has several skills that are activated al la World of Warcraft.  Vehicle repairs, healing, shields, special attacks (think fiery bullets and repetitive grenade launches), etc. which are/were traditionally bound to items, are now activated at the click of a button.

When questioned about the entire microtransaction system, Cousins had quite a bit to say.  Gamespot.com recently interviewed Cousins:

GS: This microtransactions model hasn’t taken root yet in the West. What do you look at in terms of successful predecessors for the microtransactions model in the US? Yohoho Puzzle Pirates? Acclaim’s games?

BC: MapleStory is doing really well, and Puzzle Pirates is also doing well. I’ve been going to a microtransactions roundtable at each Game Developers Conference over the last few years, and there used to be maybe a few guys operating small businesses, small-scale role-playing games and that kind of thing. When I went this year, it was clear there were a large number of [successful developers].

I think it’s interesting Heroes is the first microtransactions-based game from a major publisher. So we appear to be breaking the ice and doing something cutting-edge, but there’s a good precedent in the West for reasonable success for a smaller-scale business. There’s an audience there and a demand for this sort of game, and we think we can bust it open with Heroes with a higher profile and the higher-quality game we’re offering.

GS: Is there anything to be gleaned from the fact that none of those successful microtransaction games you mentioned were action-oriented?

BC: There’s little precedent for action-oriented microtransaction games in the West, you’re right, but the predominant microtransactions genres in Korea and the Asian markets are action games like Special Force and Sudden Attack. Having studied the way they do it in Asia–we’re also developing a specific Battlefield game for the Korean market which is separate for Heroes–we’ve learned quite a lot about what you can do and can’t do with item sales in an action game.

While it may appear as a setback for EA and DICE that the release has been rolled back to ‘late 2008’ (we’re wagering on the Christmas Holiday season 2008), it looks like this story has a silver lining.  While Battlefield Heroes is currently in a closed beta, DICE sites that they have approx. 10,000 users testing the game right now, logging in an impressive 16,000 hours of gameplay.  Obviously, they’re doing something right.   Battlefield Heroes is a risky play for EA, and the extended buildup and hype may just prove to be a winning marketing and advertising strategy that others could learn from.  While EA and DICE take this time to iron out any potential wrinkles, they continue to drive the buzz mill with posts just like this one.

I for one am looking forward to seeing YOU on the Battlefield this Christmas.