Dark Age of Camelot creator, GOA, has just announced the launch of Europe's first free online gaming portal on February 21st. The two games initially on offer are Gunbound and Pangya. The former's a turn-based combat game while the latter's a fantasy golf game with oodles of magic in the offing.

If you're thinking, 'Free? What's the catch?' then you're obviously as cynical as SPOnG. We spoke to GOA to find out what the motivation for offering the service at no cost is. You won't be hit by a barrage of advertising when you hit the site, apparently. Rather, we were told, "Players will be encouraged to purchase micro items. It's a lot like how you'd customise your phone with ringtones and wallpapers."

Following the release of a third game, eXtreme Soccer, the portal will enter phase two around the end of the year. GOA will begin to roll out social networking tools such as a messenger service and the opportunity for your avatar to mingle with those of other gamers. As this is implemented the company hopes to see gamers getting more involved with customising their avatars by downloading additional items.

This isn't to say that you'll necessarily have to throw money into the portal to get downloads. "If you achieve certain targets in the game you'll acquire whatever the game's specific currency is. You'll be able to use that to purchase certain items," a source at GOA told us.

SPOnG also checked with GOA whether the service will be available when browsing with the Wii or PS3. "No," was the answer given. "It needs downloading to your desktop, it's very much Windows-based."

GOA has recently released Labyrinth of the Minotaur the expansion pack for Dark Age of Camelot.