The in-game advertising fairy will be visiting Eidos Interactive big time, waving its wand and sprinkling their games with precious marketing dust as the company announces a three-year deal with in-game ad specialists Double Fusion. The deal will see that ten Eidos titles currently in development will be released with plenty of suggestive selling in place, from straight-up product placement to rotating advertisements served dynamically to make sure you never see the same ad for Axe brand personal hygiene products twice.

"This is an exciting and innovative opportunity for Eidos, we're delighted to be working with Double Fusion and we fully believe that our titles will offer the perfect platform for the right media partners," commented Jane Cavanagh, chief executive, Eidos Interactive.

Sure, in-game advertisements can be annoying, but as the price of game development grows and the game-playing audience expands, the practice just makes more and more sense for everybody involved.

In fact, in-game advertising giants Double Fusion recently released a study here on the amazing power of in-game ads, the results of which are of course by no means biased towards what they do for a living. Just as valid as the 2006 "Coke Is Really So Good" study published by the Coca-Cola Bottling Company.

EIDOS RECRUITS DOUBLE FUSION FOR MAJOR IN-GAME ADVERTISING DRIVE

Eidos Interactive, one of the world's leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, has signed a three-year deal with Double Fusion, the in-game advertising specialists.

The deal covers 10 key Eidos titles, all currently in various stages of development. Advertising will be displayed in several formats, ranging from dynamically-served advertisements, which can be rotated or changed after the games' release, to deep integrations and product placements.

"This is an exciting and innovative opportunity for Eidos, we're delighted to be working with Double Fusion and we fully believe that our titles will offer the perfect platform for the right media partners," commented Jane Cavanagh, chief executive, Eidos Interactive.

Frank Sagnier, Double Fusion's European managing director said: "We are truly excited about this partnership with Eidos. The quality and breadth of Eidos' portfolio of games represents an ideal opportunity for advertisers to reach many millions of consumers in an uncluttered and engaging environment. It further strengthens videogames as a primary medium of choice to reach the elusive 18-34 year old audience."

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