Abstract: A system making use of video games and data communications external to video games is used to provide advertisements, prizes and other benefits to gamers. The prizes relate to either of real world products and services as well as content for use within the video game environment. During a video game session an advertisement is provided to the gamer. When the gamer interacts with the advertisement the video game software acts to facilitate a transaction between the gamer and the advertiser.

Abstract: A game in which a plurality of players is presented with an action photograph that has a moving object missing. Each player selects a location on the image where she believes the missing object to be. After all players have made their selections, an expert in the subject of the photograph selects what he believes is the true location of the missing object and the player closest to the true location wins.

Abstract: The action of impressing an advertisement within a virtual environment of a video game is stored in a log file. The log file has a public portion and a private portion. The log file is provided to a server that determines an appropriate destination for the log file based upon data within the public portion of the log file. The private portion of the log file is optionally encrypted using a unique identifier to complicate unauthorized duplication of log files.

Abstract: A system and method for generating log files that store information regarding the presentation of advertisements in video games is described. The log file is copied to a server when a suitable network connection is available. The log file comprises a public portion and a private portion. The public portion comprises information that is used to route the log file to a suitable destination. The private portion contains optionally encrypted to complicate unauthorized access thereto.

Abstract: A variety of processes for certifying the reporting of advertising impressions provided via video games are described. These certification processes optionally take advantage of automated techniques for verifying that when advertising data is provided a corresponding advertisement is provided within the video game. In addition, as software patches are often provided for video games, a recommended process for certifying patched software is also described. Reporting data associated with advertising impressions provided from uncertified video games is considered suspect and optionally discarded.

Abstract: A method for managing advertising content delivery in a gaming environment includes associating a plurality of advertising spots of an advertising enabled game with a first advertising service provider (ADSP). In particular, the first ADSP is in communication with a communications network, such as for instance a wide area network. Using an encryption key, advertising content data is secured from tampering. Then, via the communications network, the secured advertising content data is provided for being impressed within one of the plurality of advertising spots associated with the first ADSP.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and system for providing advertising content. A request is received for first advertising content according to a first advertising content request protocol. The first advertising content is then requested according to a second other advertising content request protocol. The first advertising content is received according to the second other advertising content request protocol and provided according to the first advertising content request protocol. The invention enables a game to communicate with a plurality of Ad Servers using different Ad Server Protocols, allowing a game publisher to mitigate the business risk by present ads from a plurality of advertising services.

Abstract: A method for cataloging and populating advertising spots of an advertising enabled game includes using a catalog to select an advertising-spot of the advertising enabled game. For instance, the catalog is a catalog of itemized advertising spots for the advertising enabled game. An image is displayed including the selected advertising spot, in the context of the advertising enabled game. Advertising content is inserted into the image at the selected advertising spot, so as to produce a preview image that is representative of the advertising content when being displayed at the selected advertising spot during actual game play.

Abstract: A system and method for supporting the storage of advertising data used for providing advertisements in video games relies upon a proxy server for storing the advertising data. Specifically, in a video game device that supports a network communications and does not support a large non-volatile memory suitable for storing advertising data a storage media external to the video game device is identified and a portion of the storage media is reserved for storing advertising data. During a video game session an opportunity to provide an advertisement is detected and suitable advertising data is identified on the storage medium and transferred to the computing device via the network.

Abstract: A system supporting the presentation of advertisements within video game is described in which a memory cache stores advertising data that is used to provide the advertisements. The memory cache is managed via instructions provided by an external server via a network data connection. The management of the cache supports the storage of a variety of advertisements for a single advertisement opportunity. In addition, the cache management system is designed to supports numerous different video games on a same computing device.

Abstract: Advertising content is delivered to gaming platforms in dependence upon a location of the mobile platform. The platform provides location data either from a user of the platform, determined by the platform, for example using GPS, or through network data provided from the platform during network communication. Advertising content is then selected based on the location so determined. For mobile platforms advertising content is also distinguished based on its applicability to home address separately from the determined location.

Abstract: A method for automatically enabling and disabling advertising in an advertising enabled gaming environment includes providing a video game in execution on a gaming platform having communications with a communications network. In addition, a server is provided within the communications network for delivering of advertising content to the video game. To this end, the advertising content is retrievably stored in at least a storage location for access by the server. According to a set of rules, delivery of the advertising content to the video game is selectively disabled. Such disabling is performed absent disabling of a network connection between the gaming platform and the server and absent deleting of the advertising content from the at least a storage location.

Abstract: A method for managing advertising content delivery in a gaming environment that is in execution on an online enabled platform includes initiating an instance of a game, and fetching a piece of advertising content from an advertising service provider via a communications network. During a gaming session, at least one impression for the piece of advertising content is provided. At a time, the game instance provides an indication of the at least one impression to a server of an advertising broker site via the communications network. The advertising broker site updates a current impressions count based on the provided indication.

Abstract: A method for approving data wherein a request for approval of advertising content for being impressed upon video game players within a known advertising spot within a known video game is provided. Based on the advertising spot and the video game a system determines at least a party for approving of the advertising content. Then, the system automatically transmits a message to the at least a party requesting their approval of the advertising content for being impressed upon video game players within the known advertising spot within the known video game.

Abstract: A thin client is for detecting a video game in execution. The video game does not support dynamic in game advertising. The thin client changes the video game content of the video game during execution thereof in order to provide in game advertising within the first video game in execution.

Abstract: A method for conditional enabling of advertising spots within an advertising enabled game includes receiving data from an advertising enabled game. In particular, the data relates to each of a plurality of actions in isolation performed by a particular gamer while playing the advertising enabled game. Based on the data, a characteristic relevant to advertising is determined for the particular gamer. In dependence upon the determined characteristic content for being displayed to the gamer is selected.

Abstract: A method of in game advertising wherein in game advertising spots are registered from different video games having similar demographic characteristics. The in game advertising spots are then grouped together into an aggregated community of advertising spots. An advertising campaign then delivers advertising content to the group of advertising spots as if the group were a single advertising spot.

Abstract: In order to enhance visual representation of an advertisement within a video game optical characteristics of the advertisement are specified. Specifically, downloaded data corresponding to an advertisement is used to provide an advertising image within a virtual environment of a video game. The advertising image is displayed having a portion that appears to be at least one of transmissive and reflective. In this way, advertisements are displayed in a fashion consistent with the appearance of a corresponding advertisement in the real world.

Abstract: In order to track the behaviour of a gamer with a virtual environment of a video game, the virtual environment is provided with a set of predetermined objectives. The completion of the predetermined objectives is monitored and recorded. This information is then provided to a game developer. In addition, comparing the record of the predetermined objectives with current game assets associated with the gamer serves to inhibit authorized duplication of game assets.

Abstract: In a video game session supporting a set of gamers participating in the game from a variety of different locations, an opportunity to provide an advertisement is presented. The content of the advertisement is chosen based upon specific criteria such as data relating to one of the gamers, for example, the location of the gamer. The chosen content of the advertisement is provided within an advertising spot of the video game.