Sony has sealed an in-game ad deal with IGA Worldwide - the latter will now sell adverts into games on PS3. The first step is a two-year deal with EA. From the press release:
This agreement provides marketers the ability to plan and execute long-term campaigns targeted towards an elusive demographic - males 18 - 34 - through EA's blockbuster roster of titles. The in-game development cycle also benefits gamers in that the advertisements are better integrated within the gaming environment in order to deliver a seamless and more authentic game environment. EA has worked with IGA on various projects to date, and this agreement builds on that successful partnership.
Under the agreement, IGA will exclusively manage dynamic in-game advertising within EA's portfolio of PS3 titles including popular EA SPORTS franchises Madden NFL football, NBA LIVE basketball, NASCAR racing and NHL hockey. IGA will also have access to EA's popular racing franchises Need for Speed and Burnout.
EA, of course, is the natural choice for this experiment. It's the sleekest, most clinically brand-aware publisher in the industry today, plus its sports titles will provide easy, non-intrusive hoardings on which to position incoming ads. It will be interesting to see who advertises, and what efforts they'll go to to ensure their message doesn't simply become background paraphernalia.
Of course, IGA Worldwide is keen to paint this as a virtuous circle: gamers get a more authentic game world; advertisers get to beam out geo-targeted ads straight into the heads of a hard-to-reach demographic (young males), via a 'lean forward' rather than 'sit back' media; and publishers get to make money out of pirated, shared and second-hand games (plus IGA is claiming that game advertising is expected to cover at least 10% of game development costs by 2010).
If you find the whole thing rather sinister, remember this - IGA's Radial Network system, which serves the adverts, tracks data on the in-game ads you look at and for how long. If you don't want to support in-game adverting, look away...
