Google buys into the in-game ads game

Adscape Media is a company doing ads for games, as in in-game advertising. And now they’re owned by Google. This has been rumored for some time, but now it seems official.

So what does it mean? Adwords for online gaming? Living billboards in Counter-Strike showing perfume ads? Could be, but it seems Google haven’t decided yet themselves. Some sort of video ads seem likely, and Counter-Strike is a good example of a game where they could easily be implemented. It would be a lot harder to launch a cell phone ad campaign in World of Warcraft since it’s just out of place…

We’ll see. Google jumping into the in-game ads business is an expected move, and although they’re not talking about how this will work out, they are likely to have a plan. After all, the concept isn’t that new.

Originally posted on March 19, 2007 @ 6:15 am