The revenge of the coin-op game

Few days ago WildTangent announced a new system to play their online games called WildCoins. Players bank real money and then spend WildCoins to play games ala old school coin-op arcade. A quarter lets you play the game as long as you want.

Not being a fan of WildTangent, I'm not particularly excited. However, any new innovation in revenue models is kinda interesting. I don't understand how they've gotten consumers to pay $19.95 for a subscription (current model) but I can understand paying a quarter to try a game out.

What's also interesting is that they found a BIG sponsor. Coca Cola will apparently give away WildCoins as part of promotions. I don't get it. Why doesn't Coca Cola just sponsor the content with ads or branding.

MSN article here, WildTangent press release here.