Google has entered the game advertising space launching Google Adsense for Games.
With the new service, game creators can display video ads, image ads, or text ads within games to earn revenue. Sites will be able to define where ads appear, such as interstitial frames before a game, after a level change, or when a game is over.
Google is pitching the service not only as a first use advertising platform, but as a fall back for remnant inventory, offering “contextually targeted image and text ads which are targeted based on various content and demographic signals.
Google has signed a number of content providers and existing ad players to the network, including Konami, Playfish, Zynga, Demand Media, and Mochi Media. The first advertisers signed to the service include Esurance, Sprint, and Sony Pictures.
The video above is Google’s official pitch for the release, and it’s definitely the most different Google corporate video we’ve seen, although it does fail in one respect: it doesn’t actually show any ads in games, at least from what I could see. The video that shows Google in-game ads can be viewed here , and fast forward to 1:04.