Officials from GameShadow have announced that the company’s automatic update and patch technology is to be offered to PC gamers for free, with the company switching revenue streams to advertising and a premium service instead. GameShadow software is utilised by many publishers, including Konami, Eidos, Atari and Ubisoft, with a registered userbase of 300,000 customers. It allows gamers to find out what updates are available for supported games and graphics cards and download them if necessary. Game demos, movies, trailers and other content is also available, along with automatic alerts for new content for specific games. A pay-for-premium service will also be offered, including exclusive competitions, an increased download capacity of 30GB per month, the ability to turn off ads, and a free boxed game chosen from a range including Crashday, King Kong, the Prince of Persia Trilogy and the Splinter Cell Trilogy. Nicholas Lovell, CEO of GameShadow commented: “We’ve been waiting to hit critical mass before offering the service for free. We know the technology is 100% sound, we know that publishers are impressed about what it can do to increase their levels of customer service, and feedback from subscribers has indicated that gamers find it hugely useful. We are delighted we can now offer the service free.”