Google buys in-game ad firm

D_o_S · Feb 20, 2007

An increasingly discussed topic is in-game advertising. Google is quick enough to follow suit - not by offering its own in game advertising system, but by purchasing Adscape media. Google acquired the company for $23 million.

It will be interesting to see what is the first thing to come out of this acquisition, and whether or not Google will choose to be careful about which adverts it allows. Gamers are worried that in-game advertising could break up a richly detailed environment by placing ads that don't fit the theme of a game. Until Google makes a statement about how it will proceed, that worry may not be just rampant paranoia - AdSense has been known to post some pretty inappropriate things before. One thing is for certain: gamers are becoming an increasingly large target for (advertising) companies.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

Wile E · Feb 20, 2007

Geeez, what isn't Google buying these days? I'm starting to get the feeling that Google is gonna overextend itself and crash. I see the big dot-com crash coming again.

WarEagleAU · Feb 20, 2007

Me too. If these ads help lower the prices of games that come out, like instead of being $50 or $60 they are $30 and $40....then this will be good, as long as its not full blown with ads. If, on the other hand, it doesnt help lower prices due to advertising revenue...then to hell with them.

newtekie1 · Feb 20, 2007

I don't mind in games ads. All the ones I have seen have been pretty good about not disrupting the game and just sort of blending in. So far I have only seen them in online multi-player which is fine as long as it means the online play will be free, which is usually the case. Online gaming is getting more and more expensive for game companies to maintain and they really only have two options, sell ad space in the game or charge. I much prefer them to sell ad space in the game. I would gladly have played WoW for longer than the 14 day trial if it was free and all I had to do was put up with a few ads here and there.

Benpi · Feb 20, 2007

I noticed in V For Vendetta, every computer monitor shown was a Dell monitor. If game uses advertising like this, I see no problem.

Scavar · Feb 20, 2007

I've yet to actually have in-game ads bother me any. In fact the only ones I can think of are seeing ads for C2D in BF2142

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Google buys in-game ad firm

D_o_S

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Wile E

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WarEagleAU

Bird of Prey

newtekie1

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Benpi

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Scavar

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