City of Heroes/Villains Getting In-game Advertising

NCsoft and Double Fusion issued a press release today announcing plans to introduce in-game advertising to City of Heroes and City of Villains.

NCSOFT SELECTS DOUBLE FUSION AS GAME ADVERTISING PARTNER FOR CITY OF HEROES

Leading independent game advertising provider Double Fusion has entered an agreement with NCsoft®, the leading developer and publisher of online computer games, to represent the successful comic-book inspired massively multiplayer online game, City of Heroes®. Double Fusion will provide the technology and sales force to bring brands into the popular online role-playing game which takes place in a modern urban setting, an ideal environment for unobtrusive in-game advertising.

Double Fusion and NCsoft are focused on providing value to the players through this advertising partnership. While real world ads will lend realism to the urban world of City of Heroes, NCsoft also plans on taking advantage of Double Fusion’s technology to display player-created content within the game. The publisher will dedicate all advertising dollars it earns to fund further game development for the online title, yet still allow players to opt out of advertising in order to provide flexibility to community members.

(Our partnership with NCsoft is a clear showcase for two of our guiding philosophies: bringing value to the player through appropriate use of advertising spaces and bringing new business models to the marketplace by creating new revenue streams that can help fund game development and community support,) said Jonathan Epstein, president and CEO, Double Fusion.

(City of Heroes is a key property for NCsoft and we take great care to grow and nurture our player community,) said Brian Clayton, General Manager of NCsoft’s Northern California studio.

(We are pleased to work with Double Fusion on City of Heroes, as they have demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of our community and fundamentally understand how advertising can bring value to the players when executed gracefully, and in the appropriate context. In addition to allowing any of our players to opt-out if they so choose, their flexible technology will not only allow us to bring brand messages into the game but also provide a fun, new platform for displaying player-created materials.)

The addition of City of Heroes to the Double Fusion network demonstrates the company’s commitment to offering their advertiser and agency partners a wide array of in-game advertising opportunities, to maximizing revenues for its publisher and developer partners and to building a portfolio of top titles among retail PC and console games, massively multiplayer online games, social networks, casual downloadable games, advanced online games and virtual worlds.

About NCsoft Corporation
NCsoft North America is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NCsoft, with its own development and publishing offices in Texas and California, also works with other NCsoft subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. The company has successfully launched multiple online titles in the last three years and continues to support its franchises, which include Lineage®/Lineage II, City of Heroes/City of Villains, Guild Wars®/Guild Wars Factions®/Guild Wars Nightfall®/Guild Wars: Eye of the Northâ„¢, Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa® and Dungeon Runnersâ„¢. More information about NCsoft can be found at http://www.plaync.com.

About Double Fusion
Double Fusion is the game advertising expert. The company brings together the leading in-game ad serving technology, the broadest network of games across a wide variety of genres, and a sales force that has helped create and evolve the in-game advertising industry. Double Fusion provides marketers and their advertising agencies with the broadest range of in-game, around-game and web-based solutions with which to engage and sell the valuable and hard-to-reach gamer demographics. Double Fusion is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Jerusalem, London, and Tokyo. More information on Double Fusion is available at www.doublefusion.com.

Here’s my $15 for the month of April. Now let me see those Coca-Cola ads!