“The casual gaming industry has become an increasingly valuable space, as publishers and advertisers are recognizing the popularity and widespread appeal of online casual games,” said Riccardo Zacconi, CEO, King. “King is one of the world’s largest online social gaming sites; we continue to maintain this position by driving innovation in the industry from both the consumer and the business perspective. This partnership is testament to that commitment and has the potential to transform the way that publishers monetize consumers in the gaming space.”

Publishers can become part of Mochi Media distribution network, which gives them access to free online games. The games are ad-supported and the publishers get a piece of the ad revenue. The partnership sounds like a great opportunity for the publishers. King.com is a big site with games that attract users and now web site publishers have an oppotunity to host King’s games.

Press Release Follows:

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 24 /PRNewswire/ — Today King (http://www.king.com), the world’s leading online social gaming company, announced a partnership with Mochi Media (http://www.mochimedia.com), the world’s largest online games network, to provide website publishers new ways to generate revenue through online games. In addition to the thousands of games already available to them, publishers in Mochi Media’s MochiAds network will now be able to access and distribute King’s portfolio of skill-based games.
“The casual gaming industry has become an increasingly valuable space, as publishers and advertisers are recognizing the popularity and widespread appeal of online casual games,” said Riccardo Zacconi, CEO, King. “King is one of the world’s largest online social gaming sites; we continue to maintain this position by driving innovation in the industry from both the consumer and the business perspective. This partnership is testament to that commitment and has the potential to transform the way that publishers monetize consumers in the gaming space.”
King’s partnership with Mochi Media leverages Mochi Media’s expertise in distributing games across the Internet through its extensive publisher community. Through the MochiAds product, publishers can easily search, browse and add free ad-supported games to their sites and receive a portion of the ad revenues generated. With the addition of King’s skill-based gaming content to the MochiAds catalog, publishers will benefit from a new category of gaming content, as well as new monetization opportunities.
“Mochi Media is committed to providing a world class selection of free online games to Web publishers, as well as the tools to effectively monetize that content,” said Jameson Hsu, CEO, Mochi Media. “Partnering with King enables us to broaden the variety of our games catalog, providing our publishers new opportunities for monetization.”

King’s industry-leading breadth of exclusive branded games includes The Biggest Loser, Deal or No Deal and 1vs100 as well as popular casual game titles such as Bejeweled 2, Luxor and Cake Mania.

Google getting into in-game advertising means the market can potentially be a big market. Google is a huge force in advertising and if they are getting into in-game advertising there is a market there.

“It’s a huge stamp of approval for a major company to come in and say they believe in the online games ad market,” said Jameson Hsu, chief executive of Mochi Media, a game ad network operator which is partnering with Google. “It should awaken all of the major media companies.”

The ads are that google provides can be used in games or in youtube videos. The ads can be requested by using Flash and placing a “hook” into your game or video that tells the video or game to go look for an advertisement when it hits a certain spot, in the beginning or end.

Companies such as eSurance, Sprint, and Sony Pictures are, currently, participating in the in-game advertisements.

The entrance of Google into the flash game advertising space is big news. Google will have some competition from big names already in this space, but they must think they can set themselves apart from the competition. This also brings another avenue for flash game developers to make some money.

Thanks VentureBeat

If you don’t like ads in your games, Yahoo will also offer casual games you can pay for and download. The pay for model will be just like the other casual game portal offerings.

Kyle Laughlin, the company’s head of games, called the in-game advertising a “win-win,” allowing Yahoo to “monetize our games experience while providing the best and most popular games free to game enthusiasts.”

This is an interesting move for Yahoo. They have been struggling for a way to monetize all of the visitors to their web site. This may be the answer they have been looking for.

Thanks digital media wire