You know the political scene's really heating up if a presidential candidate starts wooing video gamers for votes. Reports have come in that Presidential nominee Barack Obama started an advertising campaign in 18 games, so don't be surprised if you suddenly drive by an Obama ad when you're racing in Burnout: Paradise.

It's not uncommon for game industry icons to express their preferences for or against something. This time around, it's American electrical engineer and entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell. Simply put, Bushnell believes that typical in-game advertising doesn't work. More on his opinion in the full article after the jump.

Movie firm Paramount clued in its interest in the games after expressing its excitement over the progress of the video game sector. Paramount Digital's Alex Carloss, currently the division's general manager of worldwide distribution, stated that we're bound to see more of Paramount in games. In-game ads, perhaps? Find out more at the full story.

Some gamers may find in-game advertisements to be nothing more than shameless plugs, while others still believe it's necessary.

In the Independent Game Conference in Austin, Gordon Bellamy goes into the subject a bit more and discusses how advertising could benefit not only the company who does the advertising, but also the game itself. He also explains why Doritos can't go multiplatform. Find out why in the full article.

Master Chief ordering take out at Burger King? Solid Snake wearing Speedos? These are just some hypothetical plugs that gamers might be seeing in the near future with the way in-game advertising has grown into a phenomenal industry nowadays.

As far back as the early '90s, we've seen games that have plugged, advertised or even coerced gamers into taking a gander at their real-life sponsors, as well as the products tied-in with them. The full article awaits after the jump!

In-game advertisements are not really new to gamers. Game developers can basically plaster a Coca-Cola logo on a zombie's chest and players wouldn't mind. (Though that doesn't make them less annoying.) Anyway, analyst Paul Verna from eMarketer sees a bright future for in-game advertising.

Developing games is not cheap at all, especially when the technology improves every other day in leaps and bounds. The solution for some developers is offering advertising spots to other companies that they will insert in-game. In a report called "Video Game Advertising: Getting to the Next Level", Verna says that in-game advertisements would help marketers (it's a whole new platform), fresh opportunities for tech companies, and a good source of revenue for game developers.

Verna gives the figures: "over the next five years video game advertising will grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 23%, reaching nearly $2 billion by 2011." The growth will be caused by the widening demographics of gamers - young and old, men and women, casual and hardcore. Online console titles and MMOs are the best sites for in-game ads as they have the bulk of the gamer population and they will be a great factor in the growth as well.

Currently, the cost of making "advergames" have reached US$ 164 million and is expected to reach US$ 344 million in 2011. Revenues from the in-game advertisements are estimated to reach a whopping US$ 969 million (in 2011) in the US alone. And those are very good numbers from a marketing point of view.

There's no turning back now.

Back in the 8th of March, we reported that Microsoft-owned in-game ad company Massive Inc. added Crackdown to its in-game advertising service. Now, a Kotaku reader had submitted to them a screencap of his game showing off Royal Navy billboards.

Put it this way: the cop could also pass off as a recruiting poster boy.

Of course, our own readers, too, have begun noticing these in-game ads popping up in their Xbox 360 games. How have you been reacting to them?

More intriguing is this speculation: where is all this in-game ad money going? Is it buffering part of the price of next-gen gaming? Will it mean lower prices at the till, or subsidized downloads? Will it mean expanded development budgets for even more exciting games? Really, where is the money going? And is it going to be worth it?

In-game advertising company Massive Incorporated seems unfazed with the departure of its top two executives last January. Business as usual, or so they say. The company is now reporting that more than 50 premier titles for the Xbox 360 and the PC will be added to its current roster of video games. Before this announcement though, Massive Inc. was only able to sign 14 since October 2006.

What does this mean to you as a gamer, you ask? Well, in-game advertising (IGA) has always involved tumultuous discussions even here in QJ. This simply means that the video games it signs will be sporting, what else, in-game ads. At least, let this be done in good taste.

Massive Inc. CEO Van Arsdale promised that their company is committed to providing good service both for the global marketing partners as well as for gamers. Arsdale commented,

Our focus at Massive continues to be connecting blue-chip global marketing partners with the appropriate gaming audience through our relationships with major game publishers. During the past two years, we've defined the dynamic in-game advertising business and continue to renew previous marketing partnerships as well as welcome new marketing partners and publishers to the Massive network.

Massive Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. So even though a few of the titles it signs are for multi-platforms, the in-game advertisements will only appear in the PC version and in the Xbox 360 version of the video game. The company's latest projects include:

• Crackdown (Microsoft Game Studios)
• DEF JAM: ICON (Electronic Arts)
• Major League Baseball 2K7 (2K Sports)
• NBA 2K7 (2K Sports)
• Need for Speed Carbon (Electronic Arts)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Ubisoft)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent

Well, it looks like there's no turning back now.

As it turns out, Valve is starting to test out the use of in-game ads for their titles, and the first guinea pig for this experiment is none other than Counterstrike 1.6 (screenies above, both courtesy of SK Gaming). Despite the flurry of protests that the mere mention of in-game advertising tends to generate, many game companies may soon be following Valve's lead.

While some fans argue that the sight of a real-world item being advertised inside a game tends to be detrimental to the whole experience, devs have noted that this form of advertising is actually beneficial for everyone in the long run.

After all, it generates revenue for game-makers.

Revenue equals more (and better) games.

More games equals happy gamers.

On top of that, there have been promises that the ads will remain discreet and out of the player's way.

At the moment, Valve is displaying advertisements for Portal and the upcoming Orange and Black boxes, all of which are their own products.

There have been earlier reports that Google ads may also end up invading the gaming world, and this has caused many to fear the possibility of having to encounter an in-game advertisement for Starbucks in a war-torn, World War II setting. After all, can you imagine running into an ad for McDonald's as you're crawling the trenches in games like Call of Duty or Brothers In Arms? Or perhaps one for Pedigree puppy food during an Unreal Tournament deathmatch?

On the other hand, there are also those who are willing to reach a compromise between revenue generation for the game companies and immersive gaming experience for the gamers. One point of this compromise involve the conditions which specify that ads that appear in games must be carefully chosen to match the theme and setting of the game itself.

Read the rest of the article after the Jump!

Well, it looks like Google is once again finding new ways to integrate itself into our everyday lives. And its new target? In-game advertising.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is planning to acquire Adscape, a company which specializes in in-game advertisements. Though there has still been no official word about the matter, many are guessing that negotiations may already be happening. Meanwhile, a Google spokesperson did say this:

We are always considering new ways to extend Google's advertising program to benefit our users, advertisers and publishers. In-game advertising offers one such possible extension among many others.

It has also been noted by members of the industry that Google may have taken a fancy to Adscape because of its AdverPlay technology which allows "two-way communication between in-game ads and the outside world".

Considering that other Google applications are already starting to make their appearances in the world of gaming, could this mean that those Google text advertisements that we usually see on webpages will soon become part of the wall graffiti in your next round of CounterStrike?