It seems like lately we’ve been writing a lot about the freemium game model, but that’s because it’s currently one of the hottest business trends in iOS development. Add one more company to the list of freemium supporters, as W3i has announced the formation of Recharge Studios and is officially throwing down the gauntlet to all available developers. The publisher is challenging the development community to come up with great new freemium game ideas, and those with the best concepts can have their development costs covered with a share of a million dollar pool.

Under the terms of the arrangement, Recharge and W3i will cover the costs of development and marketing for any apps they deem worthy, and we also assume there will be some sort of publishing arrangement and revenue sharing for those studios which take advantage of this opportunity and go on to create some profitable apps. Ultimately the challenge sounds like a great opportunity for developers with big dreams but shoestring budgets to possibly partner up and create the games of their dreams.

The announcement is very similar to the OpenFeint OFX Challenge we reported on last week, but with a couple significant differences. While OpenFeint is requiring developers to use OFX, there is no such restriction from Recharge and W3i. Furthermore, OpenFeint’s deal is only offered for games that are already released and are adding content, while this challenge is aimed at apps which are still on the drawing board. Finally, OpenFeint caps the amount awarded to developers at $10,000, while W3i hasn’t clearly defined any minimum or maximum amounts to be awarded. In the end they are two different opportunities for two totally different audiences.

In order to apply for a piece of the pie developers are asked to email W3i’s Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, Robert Weber at robert.weber (at) w3i dot com. Applicants must include basic information about their proposed game, as well as how they plan to make freemium content integral to the experience. Good luck to all those who apply, we’ll be rooting for you.

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