This is mildly interesting timing, and I’m curious as to what has sparked this particular speculation.

I ask this because in December Valve and IGA signed off a deal that will put real world advertising inside Counter Strike. Counter Strike is said to be played around 5 billion minutes a month all up [if thats how much time people waste playing CS, imagine how much time 8 million people waste playing WoW] and it is still the most played online Action/FPS game available today.

So the timing of this latest bit of news has me wondering…

Google Inc. is in talks to acquire Adscape Media Inc. in a move to expand beyond its traditional Internet search advertising business and into video games, a news report said Saturday.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported on its Web site that Google (Charts), the No. 1 Internet search company, is negotiating to buy Adscape, a closely held San Francisco firm whose technology allows for the placement of ads over the Web in video games.

A deal could be reached as early as next week, the report said.

Google may buy video game ad firm – CNNMoney.com

Now, this isn’t entirely out of the normal for Google. They buy up advertising companies all the time and move into new markets. They’re currently pushing in to Print and Radio advertising offline and have been running Audio and Video advertising through their AdWords and AdSense programs for a little while now.

What sets this out in my books is that they’d be buying into a company that already has established partnerships with well know gaming companies. I am pretty sure Adscape Media were the advertising company behind Anarchy Online going free/ad-based.

Now heres where it starts to get really interesting. Think back a few months to the beginning of May 2006 when Microsoft made a similar announcement. They purchased Massive Inc. for around $200 million. The primary reason? Get their advertising on the inside of their Xbox Live platform. Xbox 360′s are doing pretty well in the market and they definitely hold a lion’s share of the market at this point. Mostly because they were released a year earlier than the competition.

However, the Microsoft advertising program on MSN has been a pretty dismal failure so far. Barely even making a scratch in the juggernaut that is AdWords. So Massive Inc. was a way for Microsoft to guarantee advertising revenue from at least one market they can effectively control.

Does Google want in on this territory? You bet they do. However, will they be able to break into the Xbox 360′s turf? Not a chance. This will be Mac/PC, PS3 and so on for Google. Microsoft guards Xbox Live more fiercely than they do their Windows/Office Monopoly. Why? Because the advertising revenue is likely to be the only way that franchise will ever make a profit. ;-) Sony will do similar to try and offset the exorbitant costs of their PS3. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is anything that can save the PS3 except the Playstation fanbois.

Oh and just as an aside… There was a discussion between Ian and myself a while back about BluRay vs HD-DVD and which would become the dominant media once the consoles were going… Hate to say it, but the BluRay has been dealt the death blow. The Porn industry has chosen to release their titles on HD-DVD. ’nuff said :-P

Anyway… Given the Counter Strike advertising system has already been hijacked by Subway, less than a month after it was implemented, how much better can Google possibly do when they move into this market?

If you look at what they’ve done with AdWords and AdSense, you’d be surprised. However, can they really take what they’ve learned about web based advertising and successfully transplant that into gaming advertising? That is what we’re all waiting to see. Personally, I’m skeptical. Gamers are a very different breed. I’d be seriously pissed off if real world ads started showing up in my RPGs. Especially given they’re all fantasy based or set in pre-historic or medieval times. :-P Coca-Cola just wouldn’t fit in there. ;-)

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