In-game advertising company adopts TV ad model

By N. Evan Van Zelfden

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Double Fusion, a private company that connects advertisers and video game publishers, rolls out new technology on Tuesday to allow advertisers to mount last-minute ad campaigns in games the same way they use spot TV ads.

The technology will be shown to developers at the Austin Game Developers Conference starting on Wednesday.

Game designers now designate and hard-code locations for in-game advertising during the development process. After the coding is completed, advertising content can be changed via an Internet connection, but locations for ads cannot be changed or added.

Double Fusion's new program, called fusion.runtime, separates in-game advertising from the development process, allowing developers to create new placements in completed games, including back catalog titles.

"With the fusion.runtime, you can get the code in the game, and figure out the ad-spaces later," Jonathan Epstein, Double Fusion's president and chief executive, told Reuters.

The new program adds almost unlimited flexibility to what was once a fixed constellation of advertising slots within a game, Epstein said.

"This allows advertisers to dynamically run campaigns," he said.

The potential for new advertising inventory may also fund a re-release of back catalog titles -- completely free of charge to gamers, in some cases -- and longer lives for hit titles.