Google Pushes Into Video Game Advertising

The rumors were true. Last month we wrote about the possibility of Google buying in-game ad placement firm AdScape to broaden its reach in cross-platform advertising.

The company has announced that it purchased AdScape for $23 million. Like Microsoft’s acquisition of Massive last year, this should open up lots of opportunity for Google to “get in the game” of what could be a sizable and attractive ad medium (a $400 million market by 2009, reports CNet).

Broadly speaking, it also falls in line with Google’s plan to spread itself across many media  both online and off  and to be a one-stop shop for cross-platform ad buying (radio, newspaper, Web, video, etc).

More on this strategy and our past analysis of in-game ads (including implications for local) can be found in a previous post. TechCrunch and Red Herring have more on the acquisition, and The Wall Street Journal (sub req.) has a piece today on the growth of online gaming.