• CNet, Monday, March 16, 2009 11:45 AM

Last week, VentureBeat reported that in-game advertising company IGA Worldwide is seeking additional investment or a possible sale. Obviously, the recession isn't helping, says CNet's Dave Rosenborg, but video games were supposed to be a bright spot in the battered technology sector, so what gives?

Rosenborg argues that the real story here is that in-game advertising has yet to mature, which is why companies like IGA are struggling. "The current problem is that every in-game advertisement is a custom project," Rosenborg says. "You can't just pop in text or graphics as you do with an ad network such as Google or Yahoo and have it appear correctly in a video game." Even when games use the same engine, developers don't necessarily implement everything the same way, meaning advertisers and in-game companies are dealing with a vast array of different technologies that are not common to other advertising scenarios. Even if the technology problems can be solved, Rosenborg point out that several challenges hang over the in-game advertising industry.

For example, there's a lack of standards. There are also few real success stories, like the Obama campaign's usage of ads in Madden and other games. There is also a lack of vendor options. On the plus side, however, is that users have repeatedly said they are OK with ads in games, as long as they don't change gameplay.

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