Double Fusion Courts Midway
Prepare to start seeing more in-game advertisements.
Published: February 23, 2006
"Along with our strategy to create immersive, engaging content, we believe that the technology to allow for dynamic, in-game advertising will add a sense of cultural relevance and context for the mass-market audience," began Steve Allison, CMO at Midway. "Our relationship with Double Fusion will not only add potential incremental revenue on top of our existing static ad placements, but allow us to work with a partner sensitive to game development and committed to making ad placements organic and credible."
"Double Fusion's unique approach will allow Midway to incorporate dynamic advertising into their leading properties, and benefit from the tremendous market interest advertisers have in reaching the video game audience," added Elie Wurtman, chairman of Double Fusion.
Pretty much says it all, right? Midway is using Double Fusion to supply in-game ads for all their next-gen titles. Here's the thing, though, it's next-gen, and Double Fusion's entire business model revolves around delivering content that's more than just a billboard somewhere or a Burger King placed on a digital street corner (though we're willing to bet you'll see that latter one in games more often going forward).
Given that at least two of the big three consoles will likely tap into an always-on internet connection, it introduces the opportunity to swap out advertisements throughout the life of a game. Double Fusion supports using more than just static images, according to their site, and support everything from rich media (read: animations or possibly low-level video) and complete in-game objects (cans, bottles, trucks, signage, and, yes, eventually we're sure, entire storefronts). Even better, DF points out, even demos and pirated copies of the game can still serve up the ads.
Midway's first game to take advantage of the deal will be the John Woo collaboration Stranglehold, and it's clearly part of a larger initiative for the company, as they plucked former Atari advertising exec Sarah McIlroy and plopped her into the director of in-game advertising and promotions.
She even got a nice little comment from boss man Steve Allison, saying, "one of Midway's core in-game advertising strategies is to infuse our games with cultural context through the integration of static in-game product placements. We believe static promotions in conjunction with dynamic advertising will represent an attractive revenue opportunity for Midway. Sarah is arguably one of our industry's most experienced professionals in this emerging field, and we anticipate that she will manage the process for static ads as well as dynamic in-game ads with Double Fusion in an effort to maximize incremental revenue from our top titles."
You have been warned, people: Starbucks is coming to an adventure game near you.
"Double Fusion's unique approach will allow Midway to incorporate dynamic advertising into their leading properties, and benefit from the tremendous market interest advertisers have in reaching the video game audience," added Elie Wurtman, chairman of Double Fusion.
Pretty much says it all, right? Midway is using Double Fusion to supply in-game ads for all their next-gen titles. Here's the thing, though, it's next-gen, and Double Fusion's entire business model revolves around delivering content that's more than just a billboard somewhere or a Burger King placed on a digital street corner (though we're willing to bet you'll see that latter one in games more often going forward).
Given that at least two of the big three consoles will likely tap into an always-on internet connection, it introduces the opportunity to swap out advertisements throughout the life of a game. Double Fusion supports using more than just static images, according to their site, and support everything from rich media (read: animations or possibly low-level video) and complete in-game objects (cans, bottles, trucks, signage, and, yes, eventually we're sure, entire storefronts). Even better, DF points out, even demos and pirated copies of the game can still serve up the ads.
Midway's first game to take advantage of the deal will be the John Woo collaboration Stranglehold, and it's clearly part of a larger initiative for the company, as they plucked former Atari advertising exec Sarah McIlroy and plopped her into the director of in-game advertising and promotions.
She even got a nice little comment from boss man Steve Allison, saying, "one of Midway's core in-game advertising strategies is to infuse our games with cultural context through the integration of static in-game product placements. We believe static promotions in conjunction with dynamic advertising will represent an attractive revenue opportunity for Midway. Sarah is arguably one of our industry's most experienced professionals in this emerging field, and we anticipate that she will manage the process for static ads as well as dynamic in-game ads with Double Fusion in an effort to maximize incremental revenue from our top titles."
You have been warned, people: Starbucks is coming to an adventure game near you.