[casual_games] Web games: where's all the video ads?

[Ben Lewis]

We've been looking into the Eyeblaster-powered in-game advertising
technology in Web games lately, ever since the announcements were made at
the Austin Game Conference that MSN Games and RealArcade were now using
video ads between levels/every 10 minutes/etc. in free online games to boost
ad revenues. Well, I've been playing all the top games on MSN and RealArcade
this week and I'm only seeing the same old banner ads ever so often. At AGC
the Eyeblaster guys showed video ads between levels in Super Collapse 3 and
Aloha Solitaire (I think). I just played both online and download versions
of Super Collapse 3 and saw no videos at all! I only saw one video ad for
Listerine toothpaste before loading up Tradewinds 2 on RealArcade, that's
it.

 

What gives? Is the Eyeblaster model just not implemented yet? Is Massive
still not doing anything with casual games? It seems like MSN in particular
could be doing so much more to monetize their online games with 3,000+
players at any given time, when all the players are seeing is one banner ad
every ten minutes. A 15-second video between every level in a free online
version of Luxor sure makes sense to me. Seemed like I played that one
forever without seeing any new ads. Maybe the ad inventory isn't as "sold
out" as we think?

 

Anyone have some insight on this? Just wondering how profitable the ad model
can really be if there are barely any ads being shown with the current top
online games already.

 

Ben Lewis
Yatec Games
Marketing and Sales
(225)274-1550
 <http://www.yatecgames.com> www.yatecgames.com 

 

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