French publisher Gameloft has issued a formal apology to its fans over its clumsy switch of Hero of Sparta 2 into a freemium title.

The game has returned to its original paid format, having had the offending advertisements removed after fans cried foul.

"We are hearing lots of complaints from the fans of Hero of Sparta 2 on iPhone, after the game became free," read a post on Gameloft's Facebook page.

"We believe the gaming experience has been dampened in this new version. With the craziness of the Christmas period, this game update didn't go through our usual quality process."

Revert to premium

Highlighting the seriousness of the situation, VP of worldwide publishing Gonzague de Vallois also took the opportunity to convey his regrets.

"Gameloft wishes to apologise to the fans of Hero of Sparta 2 given the poor gaming experience, brought by the free version," he said.

"We acknowledged the advertisement included into the game deteriorated the gaming experience.

"We have now completely removed all ads from the game and switch [sic] it back to its previous status on the Appstore. Thank you for sharing your feedbacks [sic] and for being a Gameloft fan."

Gameloft is currently heavily experimenting with new business models including subscriptions and free-to-play.

Another recent odd example have been the real world offers available i the free version of UNO on Android. 

[source: Gameloft]