In-Game Advertising Coming to Anarchy Online

Swedish company Funcom has signed a deal with Massive, Inc to stream advertising into public areas of Rubi-Ka, the online world within Anarchy Online. Gamespot has the story. The ads are likely a direct result of the recent subscription free business model that the company has adopted for new players. From the article: "As consumers spends less time watching television and more time playing games (as indicated by numerous studies, including one from Nielsen), the game industry is turning its attention to understanding the potential to drive additional revenue from in-game advertising." Are all massive games going to be moving in this direction, or the direction that Guild Wars will take?

Comments

here's an idea

[Arctic Dragon]

How about popup ads in a first-person shooter, with the ability to blast the hell out of them with a BFG?

I'm all for it

[RaisinBread]

Please tell me that they will doing this via in-game avatars advertising for real-world products.

Nothing would please me more than to make it my personal mission to hunt down each one of these characters and nuke the ever-loving tar out of them.

Imagine the sheer joy of being part of a AdPK guild.

Ach Mein Thristen!

[darkmayo]

Just a little PA with Relevance for you. Tho in AO's case it would be "My Nanites need PEPSI!"

http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2002-09 -18&res=l

Horrific "Slippery Slope" or innocent ad revenue only time will tell... mmmm Lymon

The best review of Anarchy Online

[mrphish697]

Is located here.

This is the funniest review I've ever read.