Mobile games distribution company WildTangent announced a partnership with device vendor Asus, which will see Asus tablet owners able to play premium games and receive in-app items for free, paid for by WildTangent’s brand advertisers.

The deal follows a similar partnership with Sony Mobile, which earlier this year inked a deal which will see the WildTangent Games portal preinstalled on “select” Xperia smartphones and tablets.

Once free gameplay is over, customers have the option to rent “for a fraction of the retail price”, and apply game rentals toward ownership of the titles the enjoy most.

WildTangent has its own games development arm, and also said it is working with a “growing portfolio of third-party developers”. It said it connects brands with users via a “value exchange”, offering rewards for viewing advertising.

Its services are being integrated into Asus’ entertainment and content platform for Android, and the deal will be extended to cover Windows 8 PCs “in the coming months”.

Moving into the mobile space with the launch of an Android service in 2011, the company said its technology is “pre-installed on most major PCs shipped worldwide, including HP, Toshiba and Acer”.

It also has partnerships with operators including T-Mobile USA and Sprint.