14 DAY TRIAL // IGA Worldwide and Double Fusion already give companies the chance to insert in-game advertising, especially for MMO games and other online-based video games. It appears that this is the future: Grand Theft Auto IV proves that huge, lively virtual worlds can be created and, just like the city you live in, these worlds can be filled with banners, billboards and other forms of advertising (of course, the huge difference is that GTA used fictional brands).
However, one thing is clear: the young male demographic is less interested in TV programs and ads targeted at them have to do the same, and move to video games. Apparently, according to some "inside sources" quoted by website VentureBeat, advertising colossus Google plans to bring its Adsense program to video games and it has already been testing the technology for months.
According to the source, video ads will be inserted in games, in a pretty strange manner: a game character will introduce, at the end of an in-game sequence, a video ad saying something like "And now, a word from our sponsor". That sounds pretty bad. I prefer the in-game billboards, please!
Now, back to Adsense for games: it appears that Google plans to introduce the technology pretty soon, many suggesting that the recently launched virtual world, Lively, will be nothing but the testing ground for their in-game advertising. However, the technology will not be limited to online PC games only - disk-based PC titles, as well as games for consoles and mobile phones will be injected with Google ads.
"I don't know what's taking them so long," said VentureBeat's source. "They could move into this market very quickly, given what they have shown off." Apparently, Google is still waiting for the market to get bigger before launching its service. And, according to analysts, it's going to get pretty big - $971 million by 2011, to be more specific. So, what do you think about the possibility of having Adsense in video games? And, more importantly, would Google have what it takes to defeat the already existing companies doing the same thing?