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In-game ad provider Double Fusion has made its fusion.runtime technology -- now in use by Ubisoft, NCSoft and casual publisher Oberon -- commercially available, enabling publishers and developers to add advertising support to nearly complete and already r

Leigh Alexander, Contributor

September 4, 2007

3 Min Read

In-game advertising provider Double Fusion has made its fusion.runtime technology commercially available to publishers and developers, enabling them to add advertising support to their titles after code development has been completed, including back catalog titles and late-stage development titles. Fusion.runtime also allows publishers and developers to incorporate new ad placements into both first-run and back catalog titles after their release, which means the potential for specialized programs and continuously updated ads. Double Fusion refers to this capability as “just-in-time advertising.” For example, if an advertiser wanted to put a branded 3D blimp in the sky across multiple titles for a Fourth of July promotion, and there were no pre-existing blimp placements, publishers using the fusion.runtime technology that wanted access to those advertising revenues would be able to easily place the blimps in their games, and have them disappear after the ad campaign was completed. With code-based solutions, the ad placements are locked once the game has shipped. The Fusion.runtime solution joins Double Fusion's existing fusion.sdk code-based technology suite, back-end systems and sales force as the fusion.sdk solution. Publishers deploy the fusion.runtime engine into games through a simple patch of the game executable. Ad placements are then determined at the publisher’s leisure, using a set of creative tools built by Double Fusion, and ad definitions and related ad policies are served into the game at the time the title is run. Fusion.runtime works with Double Fusion’s existing ad server platform, and supports the same measurement standards for impressions that are used within the game advertising market today, whether the ads are in-game billboards, ads placed in the game interface, 3D product placements or video interstitials. In addition, fusion.runtime can also work with web ad servers, such as DART, for game portal operators that want to add in- and around-game ads to their advertising offering and want to manage combined web and game ad campaigns from a single entry screen. The company says Ubisoft, one of Double Fusion’s partners for the new technology, will use fusion.runtime in a selection of AAA PC titles from its back catalog sponsored by advertisers and made free to the gaming public. An initial set of games, including Far Cry and Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time are available on FilePlanet.com, and include ads inserted between loading screens and introduction movies. NCSoft will also be using both the fusion.runtime and fusion.sdk solutions across some of their newest massively multiplayer titles. Additionally, casual games publisher Oberon will be deploying fusion.runtime to drive advertising into their casual games portfolio. Double Fusion co-founder and CFO Hillel Rom commented of the announcement: “Game makers that want deep interactivity in their ads, or want pinpoint control over system resources, will benefit from our fusion.sdk solution. For those game makers that don’t have time in their development process to incorporate an SDK, or want to add advertising to back catalog titles, or perhaps want to avoid bothering the original developer in the case of games licensed from other regions, fusion.runtime opens up the revenue possibilities by delivering great advertising experiences.”

About the Author(s)

Leigh Alexander

Contributor

Leigh Alexander is Editor At Large for Gamasutra and the site's former News Director. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Variety, Slate, Paste, Kill Screen, GamePro and numerous other publications. She also blogs regularly about gaming and internet culture at her Sexy Videogameland site. [NOTE: Edited 10/02/2014, this feature-linked bio was outdated.]

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