Search »

AdSense for Games, Now Live in Beta

Google’s long-anticipated AdSense for Games has finally gone into beta.

Casual games publishers can display video, image and text ads in their online offerings. They can also define placements “such as interstitial frames before a game, after a level change, or when a game is over,” according to the AdSense blog (via MarketingVOX).

AdWords team members will help market in-game ad space to relevant advertisers — but publishers can use ad filters to yank ads they find inappropriate.

During the beta period, eligible publishers must clock a “minimum of 500,000 game plays and have 80 percent of their traffic from the US or the UK.” Fit the criteria? Submit an application.Google first announced the development of AdSense for Games in July of last year. In summer 2008, it quietly began testing the platform.

A Google exec stated in-game ads would become a billion-dollar business by at least 2010. Favoring that estimate, a survey of 1500 casual gamers finds most are willing to exchange relevant ad exposure for free game play.