Google launches AdSense for Games

Google has launched its long-rumoured AdSense for Games service, allowing online game publishers to include video, text and image ads into their games.

Available in beta in the US, the scheme has so far signed up the likes of Konami, Playfish, Zynga, Demand Media and Mochi Media on the games side, and Esurance, Sprint and Sony Pictures as advertisers.

The scheme works much like the existing AdSense tech for websites - advertisers can place contextual ads within games relevant to their brand or topic, based on keywords submitted by the game publishers.

Google says it's targeting the 200 million people who play online games every week.

So, is there a mobile angle? In a word, no. But there might be in the future. It's not so far-fetched to imagine an AdSense for Mobile Games spin-off, perhaps focused on Google's Android platform initially.

Or even iPhone, given that many of the social games publishers working with Google are eyeing Apple's handset as their next platform for expansion...