Internet portal Yahoo! has announced that its Yahoo! Games site will offer over 400 ad-supported downloadable games from casual games publishers by the end of the year.
With this move towards establishing Yahoo! Games as “the most comprehensive distribution point for games online,” the company hopes to better monetize its games offerings, provide advertisers access to its gamer demographic, and “satisfy user demand for casual ad-supported games.”
The company has partnered with in-game advertising firms Double Fusion and NeoEdge, who will sell and integrate pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll video ads into the Yahoo! Games catalog. According to Yahoo!, embracing this advertising model enables its gaming portal to provide longer (or, in some cases, unlimited) free trials for its titles. Paid downloads without advertisements will also be available to users on Yahoo! Games.
The gaming site will offer ad-supported downloadable games from the following publishers with the initiative’s launch: Alawar Entertainment, Anarchy, Big Fish Games, eGames, Floodgate, Freeze Tag, FreshGames, Funkitron, Gogii Games, GameHouse, Gamemill Publishing, HipSoft, I-Play, iWin, Last Day of Work, Legacy Interactive, Ludia, MumboJumbo, pixelStorm, PlayFirst, Playrix Entertainment, PopCap, Reflexive Entertainment, Sandlot Games, Sugar Games, TellTale Games, TikGames, uclick, Worldwide Biggies, and Zero G Games.
Said Yahoo! head of games Kyle Laughlin, “In-game advertising is a win-win for Yahoo! Games, our partners, and our users. Yahoo! Games will safely and simply monetize our games experience while providing the best and most popular games free to game enthusiasts.”
