Google confirmed this weekend that it had acquired in-game advertising specialist, Adscape for $23-million (£11.8m). This puts it in direct competition with Microsoft, following MS’s $400-million (£205m) purchase of Massive in 2006. Whoo-dee-do!” we hear you cry, “More in-game ads!” but wait, there’s more. While Microsoft’s Massive has deals in place with such publishing heavyweights as THQ, UbiSoft and Take-Two, Adscape has deals in place with… no one. But wait again, as the US patent office holds some pretty interesting information on the intellectual property owned by Adscape – and now, Google. Take US Patent numbered, 232324 (series 2) filed on September 3, 2002 for example. Called rather tediously, ‘Autoconfiguration method for interactive on-line gaming systems’.
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