Gamers. Do you hate in-game ads?

If so you should probably plan on purchasing Mercenaries 2. Complete with destructible environment, Mercenaries 2 allows gamers to blow up in-game advertising at will.

Marketing and advertising professionals need not worry however. Not only do the ads come back, but destruction of ads in-game is the equivalent to direct engagement with your target audience.

Get the full scoop on the issues surrounding the destruction of in-game ads from GameDaily.

“Playrix Entertainment is the new name for the former casual games division of Terminal Studio originally founded in 2004. The team behind such solid titles as Atlantis Quest, The Rise of Atlantis, etc. is now entering a new era bringing you the perfect mix of high-quality production and innovation.

Over the last few years Terminal Studio has become known as a successful game development and self-publishing company that specializes in casual PC games for the whole family. Our new name marks the beginning of a new dawn for the experienced team of fun game professionals. Here at Playrix Entertainment you will find the perfect mix of talent and creativity, fun and technology. We have expanded and are looking to step up production but our mission remains the same and it is to create spectacular, captivating and always family-friendly games.”

Check out the opportunity within Fishdom: Deep Sea Adventure here.

Nestlé is going to be running an in-game advertising campaign for its Nescafé products. The campaign will be featured in Perfect World, a fantasy-based MMORPG. Nestlé’s efforts are focussed on bringing more attention to their brand with youth in the Phillipines.� Perfect World is developed by Beijing Perfect World Co.,Ltd. and published by Cubinet Interactive Sdn. Bhd

The in-game campaign is being executed simultaneously with other efforts on the social networking site Friendster.

More details via BrandRepublic

“Cellufun is a community-driven mobile gaming portal providing free games that encourage social interaction between players. People from all over the world on all mobile networks access the site in their own language to compete, collaborate, chat and share game hints in their pursuit of real and virtual prizes. In addition to producing award-winning original games, Cellufun works with agencies and advertisers to design customized mobile marketing solutions that provide an unprecedented level of brand interaction and immersion.”

Advertisers and Marketers check out the listing here: CELLUFUN

Paramount is running an in-game promotion for the upcoming movie “Tropic Thunder“. They have partnered with Massive Inc to run an in-game scavenger hunt within Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. Apparently each ad in the game will serve as a clue to gamers and lead them towards an eventual reward consisting of an invitation to Ubisoft’s VIP club, and an exclusive VIP map for Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. Several prizes are also on tap including some Tropic Thunder schwag, tickets, etc. And for one lucky winner a grand prize of an Xbox 360 system with a Live Subscription and some Ubisoft games.

This is a nice way to get players involved and actually have something to reward them at the end for their participation. A new map and being granted access to a VIP club doesn’t come with a huge amount of overhead for Ubisoft or Massive. The three interest groups here (Paramount, Massive, and Ubisoft) appear to have pulled off a great cross promotion that puts all of them in a positive light. It would be nice to see some metrics from this campaign down the road to see just what kind of impact it had on gamers’ awareness of Tropic Thunder.

Press release can be found here.

Gamos Technology Solutions is releasing a mobile game titled “Colombo Ride”. Players act as a taxi driver in the game, earning money ferrying people around a map closely based off of the actual Sri Lankan city of Colombo. Plans exist to sell ads in and brand certain areas of the in-game city.

Story via pocketgamer.

IGA Worldwide is going to be delivering the in-game advertising for a free first person shooter titled Rising Eagle. The game, developed by Invasion Interactive, is available to PC users via a free download on the Rising Eagle website. To date the game has been downloaded 103,385 times, which isn’t too much of a surprise considering mankind’s love of “free”. Ed Bartlett, VP Publisher Relations – Europe of IGA Worldwide calls this model of ad supported games the “freemium” model. As the amount of money allocated towards in-game advertising increases we can expect to see an increase in the number of “freemium” games.

Rising Eagle has the majority of its combat based in urban environments, as seen in this shot from Paris below. This no doubt will allow for some great placement for brands within the game.

For more details check out the press release here.

Another prime example of integrating a brand into gaming.

Cigna Healthcare is joining the ranks of other companies who have created a virtual presence within Second Life. We tried to find the virtual island within Second Life with no success, however you can visit Method the company that created the branded experience for Cigna and get an idea of what they designed for Cigna in this case study. (Cigna and Method may want to at least get the new destination logged in the Second Life search system to make it easier for people to find)

Previously we have seen companies like IBM, Sears, and CNN to name a few branch into the realm of Virtual Reality and second lives. Cigna, like the others, cites a desire to reach demographics which might not otherwise be connected with via traditional communication mediums. From the Cigna press release:

“As a health service company, we are always looking for new and creative ways to reach people with important messages about living a healthy and productive life,” said Keith Dixon, Ph.D., president of CIGNA’s health solutions unit. “With a social interactivity that extends beyond geographic boundaries, and an exciting and appealing visual experience, CIGNA’s virtual community enables us to reach an entirely new group of people that might not respond to health education messages delivered through more traditional channels.”

The full press release from Cigna can be found here.

This is not the first time that Cigna has taken advantage of branded gaming. The company previously released a game titled “Re-Mission” to assist in teaching youth about cancer. The game which was developed in coordination with HopeLab, allowed users to play as a cancer cell destroying nanobot.

Cigna’s efforts are an excellent use of Second Life for creating something productive and beneficial to users in their first lives. Perhaps in a couple monthx Method and Cigna will be able to provide some data on what the efforts in Second Life end up doing for awareness of the Cigna brand.

Nestle and Namco-Bandai have teamed up to promote to Nestle’s Aquapod bottled water with Active Life: Outdoor Challenge for the Wii.� This is the second time that Nestle has used in-game advertising to promote Aquapod. Nestle is obviously looking to capitalize on the fitness games made popular by the Wii platform.

Further details can be found here courtesy of Nick DiMola at Nintendo World Report.