Google have completed the acquisition of AdScape Media, closing a deal that has been rumoured since late January - the official announcement of which was reported by bigmouthmedia in mid-February. Although the details of the deal are being kept confidential, last month's report from Red Herring, a tech-industry journal, claimed that the deal was worth $23 million. The purchase means that advertising in video games may move beyond that of simple product placement to dynamic and changing advertising environments in the future.
Video games have never featured massively dynamic advertising, but product placement has always been rife in order to provide an immersive environment for gamers. Heavily branded games, such as EA's UEFA Champions League, include advertising hoardings displayed around the pitch for UEFA's key sponsors - and officially licensed teams include true-to-life sponsor logos on their shirts.
EA have also experimented with advertisements for their own products in games, such as billboards at the side of the road in racing games. Google are tight lipped on the future of the AdScape service, but a move to an advertising model based around their AdWords and AdSense services could well be planned.
In the FAQ section of their new, Google-fied AdScape Media page, Google say that they "do not have news to share about the integration plans" in relation to Google advertising platforms. However, the inclusion of this question on their FAQ suggests that the search engine might indeed be thinking about doing such a thing.
A PPC-like bidding model on in-game advertising would be a fledgling service, but could also be one that reaps rewards for both Google and advertisers. The clamour to get an advertisement served into a four million-seller such as Gears of War, for example, could be huge. A captive audience of four million gamers could not help but see the advertisement.
It's not known for certain as to how the ads will appear and Google are not forthcoming with any major details. However, they have said that they want the ads to be as unobtrusive as possible and to preserve "a high quality, engaging user experience".
These titbits seem to point to passive advertising, such as billboards that change when an advertiser is outbid for that advertising slot, or different shop advertisements present during a game. The system would provide an innovative way for companies to deliver advertisements to millions of gamers without being obtrusive and obvious about doing so, and inadvertently detracting from the gaming experience.
