Google Brings Ads To Games, Game Ads To YouTube 108
Reuters reports that YouTube will be partnering with Amazon and iTunes to provide the ability to purchase games and songs that are in or related to YouTube's hosted videos. For example, watching footage from Spore will bring up a link to purchase the actual game through Amazon. The sales revenue will be shared. In related news, Google has launched a public beta for their in-game advertising software based on Adsense. "Google is initially targeting the sweet spot for its technology: games based in Adobe's Flash platform and which run in a web browser with no download. ... [Christian Oestlien, senior product manager at Google] said that Google's advertisers can use the software to insert ads into games or videos for YouTube, making the ads more versatile. Developers of games can use Flash software development kits to designate the points in a game that make an 'ad request.'"
Re:Ads in Games (Score:1, Informative)
Expect this to very quickly go from Flash games into any game that connects to the internet, its a great new revenue stream for companies.
I think you might be a little overly pessimistic here. Flash games are free content. Most other internet games aren't. Jumping that barrier would be akin to commercials going from broadcast TV over to HBO -- possible but less likely and with a much greater backlash.