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Advertisers turn to in-game opportunities

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By John Gaudiosi, special to LTW

The post-writers-strike TV landscape is a wasteland. There's only one hit, "The Mentalist," among the new fall shows and even once-mighty hits like "Heroes" and "Grey's Anatomy" have seen ratings shrink.

More people watch the TV shows they do like these days – at least the lucrative 18-to-34-year-olds – via TiVo or some type of DVR that can skip through commercials. That leaves advetisers with videogames.

Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp., has taken a page from TV networks by offering advertisers an upfront in New York City that shows the games and opportunities for 2009. This shows how far in-game ads have come, and it's painting  the way for the future as big companies like IGA Worldwide, Double Fusion and Google's AdScape Media are offering new opportunities for brands to be incorporated into games.

It's not a coincidence that Barack Obama, the only candidate to spend money on in-game ads (through Massive), won the election. Gamers typically fast-forward through ads of any kind on TV, except maybe those non-stop gaming commercials that surround shows like "South Park."

In-game ads are also becoming more immersive. Massive offered destructible ads in Electronic Arts' "Mercenaries 2: World in Flames" game, which went beyond the typical billboards a player might drive by. Blowing up a billboard connects gamers to a brand much better than just seeing it stand there indestructible. Ubisoft offered an in-game scavenger hunt for its "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2" game this year. Even simple things like Subway's in-game text campaign, which offered cheats for games, worked in building positive brand awareness.

Massive has extended its reach with new deals with Activision Blizzard for in-game ads. The new deal covers 18 games, including "Guitar Hero: World Tour," "Quantum of Solace," the new Transformers game and the Tony Hawk games. Massive already has deals with THQ, EA and Ubisoft, among others. The company also hired former Xbox Live General Manager JJ Richards to head up the in-game ad division within Microsoft.

I only watch TV commercials when I'm forced to in hotel rooms. I don't even watch sports without waiting a half-hour after kickoff or puck-drop to allow for time to forward through commercials. But I have no problem with ads in games when they blend and make sense. In most modern games, billboards and other ads add realism to the landscape. Our world is blanketed with ads of all kinds, so seeing them in-game is natural and actually improves the game experience for most.

Gaming Guru

John Gaudiosi is a national journalist who has been covering the video game business for more than a decade. In addition to blogging for WRAL.com, he also writes about gaming for Wired Magazine, The Washington Post, Xbox.com and Yahoo! Games. Read more articles…