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Google The Internet Businesses Entertainment Games

Google Acquires In-Game Advertising Company 44

Posted by Zonk from the that-was-a-googame dept.
Firmafest writes "According to Red Herring Google has purchased an in-game advertising company called Adscape for $23 million. Is this the next logical step to delivering ads where there's sufficient potential buyers? Or is it simply a response to Microsoft acquiring a similar company?"
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Google Acquires In-Game Advertising Company More

Google Acquires In-Game Advertising Company

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  • In Game Advertsising Done Right? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rycross ( 836649 ) on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:33PM (#18044504)
    In game advertising is one of those things that has to be done really subtly to avoid pissing off the player. If anyone can do it right its Google.

    Hopefully this means we won't have intrusive and loud ads added to our games.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Buddy_DoQ ( 922706 )
      Even the subtle ads in Crackdown weren't subtle enough for this gamer. No sale! >=(

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sqlrob ( 173498 )
      Ads like

      Get your free PS3! (more than a year before PS3)
      Download Star Wars Episode 1 free! (Ep 1 was in the theaters)

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by RichPowers ( 998637 )
      Perhaps. I think that plastering billboards in your game is lazy and unimaginative. Rainbow Six: Vegas had an excellent in-game ad. If you shoot a can of Axe bodyspray, a blooper reel will start playing picture-in-picture. People read about this online and went back to find the Axe. I certainly like these Easter eggs more than posters decorating walls. At least I'm not forced to watch Axe-sponsored bloopers unless I want to.

      The most recent CSI game also had the player lift fingerprints from a Visa card foun

    • Re:In Game Advertsising Done Right? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Kimos ( 859729 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `todhsals.somik'> on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:50PM (#18044744) Homepage
      I think we can agree that the only way to do it right is to not do it at all.

      I don't want video games to turn into the same system as TV. Where you pay the provider for the privilege of them showing you ads that they are getting paid to show you.
    • The only times when I don't mind in-game advertising is 1) for sports games, where it generally makes the game more realistic, and 2) when the developers advertise their own games.
    • Hopefully this means we won't have intrusive and loud ads added to our games.

      Nope, all the ads will be a 1 pixel GIF file. You won't see it, but they'll make a lot of money from it.

  • Great... :( (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mandelbr0t ( 1015855 ) on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:33PM (#18044506) Journal
    Now I have to watch ads every 15 minutes of raid time. What a PITA. Isn't my subscription fee enough revenue?

  • Sweet. (Score:5, Funny)

    by EveryNickIsTaken ( 1054794 ) on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:35PM (#18044544)
    Awesome.. now I can see a "Google Sponsored Link" to buy a real AK-47 while playing Grand Theft Auto...

  • The only type of in-game advertising I like. . . (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Apple Acolyte ( 517892 ) on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:40PM (#18044592)
    The only type of in-game advertising I like is advertising for products in reality simulators, such as car sims. If I'm racing around in a hot car, I expect to see billboards for products. I think such advertising enhances the immersion effect. As long as game developers do not go overboard with in-game advertising by only placing it in natural, reality-based settings where one would expect to see them, I don't have a problem.

    • Re:The only type of in-game advertising I like. . (Score:5, Insightful)

      by An ominous Cow art ( 320322 ) * on Friday February 16, 2007 @06:06PM (#18044970) Journal

      The only type of in-game advertising I like is advertising for products in reality simulators, such as car sims. If I'm racing around in a hot car, I expect to see billboards for products. I think such advertising enhances the immersion effect. As long as game developers do not go overboard with in-game advertising by only placing it in natural, reality-based settings where one would expect to see them, I don't have a problem.
      In this case, it's 'reality' that's broken. You shouldn't be conditioned into expecting to see advertising while driving around a race track or regular streets.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

        In this case, it's 'reality' that's broken. You shouldn't be conditioned into expecting to see advertising while driving around a race track or regular streets.

        Uh, show me a race track without ads. Even in rallies, which are done on the street, they roll out the advertising.

        And what do you know, just like any other sponsored event, it couldn't actually exist without the sponsors. Thus it's really quite reasonable to allow them to place their logo on the race track, which is pretty much everything they eve

        • I agree that it's realistic. I am just less tolerant of advertising than you; I find it *all* to be horribly offensive.

          The kind of 'Sponsorship' you mention is somewhat less offensive to me than other kinds, though.
    • Part of the reason that this works, obviously, is that auto racing is replete with ads already, plastered all over the cars or in various spots around the track. Of course, nearly all of these advertisers are major companies or household names. If Google starts piping ads into an online racing game similar to the fly-by-night cruft you sometimes get with AdSense, I can easily see the disgust levels rising enough to turn off auto racing fans who are already strongly conditioned toward seeing advertising.
    • I think beyond typical locations for advertising like in game billboards and such, the real opening is similar to what Hollywood has been using for years: the thousands of products used by characters in their daily lives. Auction off the label on what would otherwise be generically named products. Game companies are always going for licenses; these licenses would seem to be optimal since they're paid to use the logos rather than paying for the privledge.
    • I agree with you, sad as it is some sports are grounded heavily in advertising, to the point where having *no ads* actually makes the game worse. I'm thinking Formula 1 here, but yeah most real life sports games.

      Not sure if that is the type of in-game advertising google are getting into though. It's probably something more generic.

  • Obligatory Penny Arcade link (Score:5, Funny)

    by SighKoPath ( 956085 ) on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:42PM (#18044640)
    Yeah, ads in games... http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/19 [penny-arcade.com]

  • No way I'm playing Counter-Strike... (Score:5, Funny)

    by garyok ( 218493 ) on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:42PM (#18044644)
    Can you imagine what the content's going to be if they make the ad content context-sensitive based on player chat between rounds?
    • "OMG ur ballsucking fag!" - gay porn
    • "UR Mom suxx0rs teh cocks" - milf porn
    • "you are so fucking lame" - cripple porn
    • "stop being such a fucking little kiddie" - ehhh...
  • AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Google is following me everywhere. No place to run, no place to hide.
    • Don't worry they've assured me that they're good.

      Well, not really. But they've assured me they'll try to not be evil. Thats, umm, something I guess.

  • If they follow what they did for web publishers... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WoTG ( 610710 ) on Friday February 16, 2007 @05:56PM (#18044838) Homepage Journal
    Google could generate an explosion in small software shops writing cute little games to get "page" views. Google AdSense has probably done more to encourage the growth in small web sites than anything else the last few years.

    I'll call it Freeware 2.0.

  • Ads (Score:1)

    by jrwr00 ( 1035020 )
    I can see like in a RPG, if there is a flyer on the ground, and it you can pick it up and its a ad to by swords in real life, now that would be cool
  • ... ads are perfectly alright with me. If it increases the immersion of the game to make it seem like a real world? All the better. And no, I wouldn't say I'm conditioned to seeing ads and thus feel they're alright. I dislike most of them because they tend to be irrelevant to whatever I'm viewing. Heck, I've clicked on interesting looking ads now and then myself. If it's an interesting product of course I'll click on the ad, that's what they're for. Chances are I won't buy anything and am there simply to fi
    • this makes me want to make a game based in the 21st century, the main action will be around a shopping a mall. maybe, call it "Clerks" and all the players have one secret power and they got to do these missions without alerting the normals or they will lose their jobs. all kinds of opp for product placement. could probably do without sub fees.
      • Give it some engaging gameplay, real-time battle system and I'd play it. Not kidding either. And hey... If tactful product placement allows me to play a game without subscription fees? Well jeez, all the better!
  • I'm so sick of advertising. I'm coming close to wearing out my 'mute' button on my television remote from keeping myself from hearing a commercial for the 10th time in an hour-long program. I'm sick of silly little tunes and flashy pop-ups when visiting websites. I'm sick of seeing billboards with stupid themes designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. To get back on topic, I was excited a few months ago for the release of Battlefield 2142, and had occasionally kept an eye on it through its d

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Floritard ( 1058660 )
      I agree with your sentiment. I do think there is a distinction between product placement and advertising. If the trash I plow through while barrelling down the streets in my shiny race car is filled with Pepsi cans -- the little logos just barely registering in my periphery -- then yes I think that adds to the real-world immersive element of play. But if the pedestrian I run over is screaming "The choice of a new generation!" then a line has been crossed and I've been rudely distracted from the game. If you
    • Unfortunately, most company legal departments would *never* allow anything vaguely entertaining such as a skewered Pillsbury doughboy in the game. I recall a recent postmortem article in Game Developer magazine... the writer described how their legal department nixed an *invented* restaurant name because they feared it was too common and likely to be used by some restaurant in real life.

      That's the current legal climate of business today. Tort reform, anyone?
  • I don't watch television anymore because I simply cannot stand the advertisements. There are ads running on screens in checkout ailses while shoppers stand in line at Walmart. Honestly, I was recently surprised with the realization that the entire rythm of a typical pro football game is so utterly regulated by the need to insert television advertising. For me it ruined the fun of spectating. It really baffles me how people put up with it. I won't pay money for that sort of shit in my games. It made me stop
  • Far more interesting than where Google will place those ads, is the point that for Google this is one more step towards being the most important ad company. Maybe I perceive Google as too strong, but what I believe could happen in the next few years is that Google will be more and more important for selling ads in many different media. Since the internet will also increase its importance, Google will gain power. Google tries to collect so many statistics in order to be able to deliver ads better that any ot
  • If Google had bought first /.ers would all be "omg Microsoft = shameless copying, Google = innovation".
  • I think Google can place ads in videogames. It would be interesting to see what Google does with it. Cindy Serridge Veremedia.com

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