So this is what it's like when worlds collide... totally freakin' sweet!

I happen to be a huge video game fan, and have been for most of my life. That shouldn't be a secret to most of you though as I've mentioned this several times here on the Klog alone. I even had an opportunity to outshine a few of you SEMs with my gaming talents this past June at Microsoft's adCenter party (during the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle).

Just in case you forgot... here's a picture to remind you:

Now with that being said, it shouldn't come as surprise to any of you to know how excited I am that just yesterday Microsoft, in all their greatness, inked a deal with Electronic Arts (specifically the EA Sports brand), one of the biggest developers in the gaming industry, to provide in-game advertising for a number of popular sports games. For you gamers out there, this translates to Madden football, EA's Nascar, Tiger Woods golf, NHL hockey, and several upcoming skateboarding games.

For those of you who don't understand how in-game advertising works, Microsoft will act as a broker (through "Massive" - a company they purchased sometime ago) between companies that want to get their ads in front of gamers and game publishers whom are eager to tap new sources of revenue to offset higher development costs for flashy new games... which can cost upwards of $20 million to make. It's actually pretty cool. As a gamer, I love seeing actual advertising in the background as I skate through the streets of a major city or play inside an official MLB park. It adds that realistic feeling.

Now I know what you're all thinking... buying ad space in a video game isn't exactly search marketing. Well, as true as that is, neither is utilizing YouTube, Digg, or any other social media platform for traffic... but you'll still find such services offered by many elite search marketers. Maybe, just maybe, All Web will one day be buying video game advertising for their clients. One never knows in this industry.

And for those of you out there who think I'm absolutely off-the-wall crazy for even suggesting that search marketers may one day manage in-game ad buys... you must have forgotten about Google's recent $23 million acquisition of Adscape last February. In that one single purchase, Google gained the technology needed to serve in-game video game advertising.

We all now that when Google, the king of search and online advertising, makes such a move the search marketing industry in most cases will always follow. And why wouldn't we, in-game advertising was worth just $50 million in 2005, now nearing $200 million in 2007, and is expected by many analysts and industry executives to increase to $1 billion over the next few years.