Rumour has it that Google is looking to buy its way into the burgeoning world of in-game advertising. After Microsoft's purchase of Massive last year - a company that arranges dynamic in-game ads for game publishers and advertisers - Google has apparently been sniffing around for a smiliar deal. And it may have found one in the shape of privately owned company, Adscape Media, another advertising facilitator possibly ripe for takeover.
Arstechnica.com worries about the way in which Google might run an in-game advertising concern. Perhaps the search engine behemoth will cleverly marry its Google AdWords system to your headset mouthpiece, so that whatever you shout during deathmatch sessions will bring up a range of suitable advertisers: 'Find 'Die, scum!' on eBay'... It's likely though that Google will just provide a matchmaking and technical support service for companies that want to advertise in games.
The Arstechnica post moves onto a wider discussion of in-game advertising, noticing that most gamers are happy for ads to appear in relevant game environments - around a race track or football pitch, perhaps - but would baulk at billboards going up in role-playing games. Thing is, if/when in-game advertising really takes off, the likes of World of Warcraft, with its eight million inhabitants, represents prime real estate.
Question is, if there really, really had to be ads in WoW - say the game would shut down if there wasn't - what would you choose to go in there?
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