Ad-funded mobile games company 123play.com has announced a partnership with Metro, the free urban UK daily newspaper published by Associated Press. The deal will see Metro and 123play.com offering readers the chance to download top quality mobile games for free, simply by sending an SMS. The offer will be included in the print, online and mobile editions of the paper, which has an overall daily readership approaching 5 million. With the addition of Metro to its media existing partners, 123play.com says it hopes to cement its position as the UKs leading destination for ad-funded mobile games. 
The games offered by 123play.com are free to consumers thanks to advertising wrapped before and after the game. Each time a game is launched on the handset, fresh ads are dynamically inserted around the game, meaning that consumers can either wait and watch for a few seconds before the game starts, or they can click on ads they like to be taken through to more information. Once the advertising has been displayed, the game starts and runs in exactly the same way as a normal retail version. 123play.com offers a range of mobile games which include ads from major brands like eBay, Britvic, NME and Pot Noodle. The games are totally free to download.
As well as showing consumers how to download free games to their mobiles, the partnership with Metro will see ads for Metro and associated services included in the advertising inventory already offered by 123play.com.
The games offered by 123play.com come from well known publishers such as RealArcade, Digital Chocolate, Hands-On Mobile, PlayerX, In-Fusio, Fishlabs, Indiagames and Progressive Media. Consumers can get games via the 123play.com website, or directly on their mobile from m.123play.com. There are currently more than 50 games to choose from.
This deal with Metro is a major step forward for 123play.com, says the companys CEO and Co-founder, Ilkka Lassila. Millions of readers who may have never downloaded a game before can now get top quality games without any risk or spending any money. For people sitting on the bus or on a tube thinking what they can do to keep the boredom at bay, in just a few seconds they can be playing some of the best games available all for free.