Google Preps Joystick for In-Game Ad Invasion

For the last several months, Google has quietly been testing an “AdSense for Games” platform. Sources say the technology enables advertisers to place video ads in games. In some demos, a character from the game even introduces the ad with a preface like, “And now, a word from our sponsor.” And in addition to online games, Google in-game ads can reportedly be added to console games, disc-based games and mobile games, reports VentureBeat (via MarketingVOX). It is unclear why the technology has not been released. Google announced in July 2007 that it was planning an in-game ad expansion after filing an in-game ad targeting patent in April of last year. Since then, a number of rivals have beat it to market. Notably, game maker Electronic Arts (EA) joined Microsoft’s Massive to debut a dynamic in-game ad platform for the Xbox 360... [read full story]