From today's WSJ, Google is thinking about getting into the VideoGames advertisement market.The Mountain View, Calif., company is in talks to acquire Adscape Media Inc., a closely held San Francisco company whose technology allows for the delivery of advertising over the Internet and placement within videogames, according to people familiar with the matter. They added that a deal could be reached as early as next week.
While the possible terms of a deal aren't known, Microsoft Corp. last year acquired Massive Inc., a company that delivers in-game ads, for close to $200 million.
An acquisition of Adscape, if completed, would allow Google to offer the hundreds of thousands of advertisers who currently buy online ads through its system to also buy ads that appear within videogames. The market for delivering ads into games -- such as a virtual billboard on a racetrack or a poster in a boxing arena -- is still in its infancy, but major games publishers such as Electronic Arts Inc. believe it could be a lucrative business and many are pursuing it aggressively. Sending ads over the Internet is just now becoming more feasible through new game consoles such as Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360, which are designed to be connected to the Internet.
I don't know much about the videogame adv. industry but it has some characteristics that I believe are really interesting:- Segmentation: the process of selecting the videogame to play is a process of auto-segmentation. Usually each game has a concrete and specific audience. That would be a great match for Google matching know-how.
- Size and evolution: the new consoles are bringing to this market (time ago just for hard core users) all new kind of players. First, he number of woman acquiring and playing with last generation consoles is growing incredible fast. Second, players are no longer someone in the range 14-25 years, they are located in the 14-40 years range.
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