Neil Postlethwaite, the managing director of Splash Damage has confirmed in his development blog that the upcoming Enemy Territory Quake Wars will feature in-game advertising, claiming that the move will help them to continue supporting the game whilst not needing to pass the cost onto the consumer.

"For the last four years, we've put all of our effort into making Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. So, we're not planning to ship this game and walk away ... To help cover this level of on-going support without passing the costs on to the gamer, ETQW will feature appropriate advertisements in select locations of our levels," reads the blog.

"The ads aren't intrusive and you won't have to interact with them; they'll just be part of the normal environment. In fact, there are some places it's quite odd not to have an advertisement - the sides of container trucks, for example."

"Great care is being taken to ensure that all our ads are appropriate for the game world and we have absolute approval rights in this area. If it's not appropriate or it's distracting, it won't go in."

If it takes the cost down for the gamer then we're all for it, just as long as the adverts don't become too intrusive. Activion's CEO, Bobby Kotick, gave us a taste of what the future holds for videogames when he told Indian television.com that, "Video games will soon be as mainstream an advertising medium as television."He's right, and it's happening right now.

Source :: Development Blog