Almost anyone with children will tell you that games, whether console, online or MMORPG, can capture the attention of kids and teenagers for hours every day, trumping television or Web surfing.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Google has built on its February purchase of Adscape and suggested, with recent interactive IP filings and an AdSense product rep speaking on monetization of gaming products next week, that it is going long in game advertising.

However, unlike Microsoft, which owns a popular console, and the Adscape deal, at $23 million was easily dwarfed by Microsoft’s purchase of Massive last year, estimated at $200 million, Google doesn’t have as strong an association with the industry as its chief rival. So, in keeping with Google’s tradition of capitalizing the long tail of publishers, Google will likely go after small, independent game developers that operate and sell beyond the scope of the big guys. And contextual ads might offer higher value than the banners currently typically served, targeted as they may be to the typical gamer demographic.

Game aggregators and distributors such as GameTap (Turner), Steam (Valve) and GameSpy (IGN/Newscorp) might also be attractive targets for big deals with Google.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 2:06 pm and is filed under Online Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.