Future of Computer Gaming: Advertising Generated Revenue?
Half a decade has passed since the dotcom bubble burst. The dotcom bubble was composed numerous technology companies with business plans that depended on web advertising revenue. However, the revenues didn’t come and thus the bubble burst. A fews years later advertising revenues came to the spot light again with Google showing the world how to it right. So advertising generated revenue schemes are making a comeback.
This time it is hitting the mobile gaming world.
Mobile advertising provider Greystripe says that German game publisher HandyGames will begin using its AdWRAP system to deliver in-game ads to a number of its titles. But it’s not just in-game mobile ads that’s notable, HandyGames will make the titles free to users and generate revenues just from the advertising.
From Greystripe Website, the technology works by grabing a completed mobile game and then “wrapping” into an ad-supported version.
Our patent-pending AdWRAP technology integrates with mobile games without any change to the publishers’ development process. Because the processing is done on completed applications, there is no additional code to write or libraries to include. The AdWRAP for Publishers web interface makes it a five-minute process to upload an application and then download an AdWRAPed version. In addition to delivering advertisements, AdWRAP provides publishers a way to target messages to their own users, gather custom survey information, and see reports on usage information such as time-of-day and duration distributions.
Well, the methodology may or not may work. However, if this does take off then it will mean a change in the way money is made from games. Right now, with the proliferation of MMORPGs, we are beginning to see auxiliary revenue coming in from advertising and sponsorships. It is only a matter of time before advertising will take a lion’s share of that revenue. Imagine an free high-quality (low-quality ones exist already) MMORPG that simply makes money on advertising revenue.
