MONTREAL - There's no way for online video game players to avoid these ads.
The ads are integrated into games for XBox 360 and Windows-based PC platforms and can be specifically timed and tailored as the games are played online.
Known as "dynamic in-game advertising," it's a fairly new trend that advertisers are hoping will reach the target audience of 18-to-34-year-old men, a demographic that is often hard to reach.
"Ads are geared to the type of game," said Cory Van Arsdale, CEO of Massive Inc., an in-game advertising firm owned by Microsoft Corp.
Massive Inc. announced Tuesday it has a two-year extension of its deal with California-based Electronic Arts Inc. to offer dynamic in-game advertising for EA video games.
Electronic Arts is the publisher of the "Madden" and "Need for Speed" series, among other game franchises.
Massive says video games are the medium of choice for young men. The gamers could see ads for upcoming movies, or a Coke machine, or a billboard for Castrol motor oil, all blending in with the scenery as part of the gaming experience. They could also see ads in a football stadium or on a racing track in video games.
"It's a lean-forward experience," Van Arsdale said from Seattle. "Users don't pause or fast forward or go get a snack or go to the restroom during the ads."
Van Arsdale said that when a user connects to the XBox Live online platform, Massive can download ads to be inserted into a game, and can change those ads often.
If a gamer buys a game and doesn't connect to the Internet to play, ads in the game don't change, but Arsdale noted that an increasingly large percentage of gamers play online.
Digital media expert Ian Bogost said that while the ads can make the gaming environment realistic, it's not certain they are having any affect on the young gamers' habits as consumers.
"It would sort of be the same thing as asking the football player or the NASCAR driver in the real world, 'Gee what did you think of that ad?' said Bogost.
"They are going to tell you: 'I am playing my game. I am racing my race. I am not thinking about that,' " said Bogost, who teaches at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
"I think that the dynamic ads are a kind of hopeful fantasy of the advertising industry that don't really connect yet to the way that video games work, and especially the way that they work differently than print or even than television."
Van Arsdale defends the ads, saying gamers find the video games' environments less realistic without them.
Massive says its Canadian clients include the Rogers Sportsnet and Rogers Wireless divisions of Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B), Shaw Communications (TSX:SJR.B), Telus (TSX:T) and Bell Sympatico (TSX:BCE). American and European clients include 20th Century Fox, General Motors and Puma.
The agreement with Electronic Arts will also include more titles and the next two releases of EA Sports franchises, including "Madden NFL" football, "NBA Live" basketball, "NASCAR" racing and "NHL" hockey that would be available to advertisers.
Dynamic in-game advertising in PC, console, mobile and casual games is expected to grow to 84 per cent of the overall in-game advertising market in 2012, up from 27 per cent in 2006, says U.S. based Parks Associates, a market research and consulting firm.
In-game advertising will experience the highest growth rate among the various categories of game advertising forecasted, increasing to more than $800 million in 2012 from $55 million in 2006, according to Parks Associates.
While in-game branding has been around since the 1980s, Massive says it pioneered dynamic in-game advertising and served its first ads three years ago.
Analyst James Belcher there will be resistance to this kind of advertising by hardcore gamers.
"It's a huge group," said Belcher, senior writer at New York-based EMarketer, which publishes Internet market research.
"The word 'sucks' will be used a lot. Count on it."
Belcher said Sony Computer Entertainment America has announced the creation of a new in-game advertising business unit.
