Quake Wars to sport ads

SPLASH DAMAGE, developer of upcoming Quake title Enemy Territory, has announced that it will be displaying ads within the game itself.

In-game advertising is going to be big business if you believe analysts, and Splash is looking to get in on some of the cash. Developing a game is big money these days, and supporting an ongoing online gaming community even bigger. Splash says that the money will be used to pay for servers, ongoing support and future development of the title.

Ads will be 'appropriate' within the game, we're told, although just what alien invaders plan to be buying as they take over Earth we're not quite sure. Blow up a military base, dismember some soldiers then stop at a Subway for a break?

As gamers spend less time in front of TV and more time in front of computers, marketers are going to have to think of increasingly novel ways to get at them. Gaming is an obvious candidate. Battlefield 2142 features ads, maliged by its audience, and World of Warcraft has an 'order a pizza' hotkey.

No word on who is going to be providing the advertising technology - both Microsoft and Google own in-game ad firms. We suspect it will be Microsoft, who will almost certainly mandate the use of their technology for Xbox 360 gaming. µ