Tag: Gaming

Bidstack, the leading in-game advertising platform, has announced a new and exclusive partnership with mobile game developers Game Tap Studios. The partnership will see Bidstack serve seamless in-game ads into gameplay across 3 new games whilst offering brands an additional touchpoint with in-menu ads that are designed that fit in naturally with the user experience.

The first new title to be added to Bidstack’s portfolio of games is Flying Car Real Driving – a car driving simulator that allows players to drive around a virtual city before taking off in their hybrid vehicle. The game which is available on Android first launched in January 2018 and has had more than 5m downloads to date. In-game ads from premium brands will be seen by players on billboards around the cityscape as they hone their driving and flying skills and ads will also be served in the game’s loading screens and menus.

High Ground Sports Bike Sim 3D will also be added to Bidstack’s racing vertical. This simulation game allows players to race around a bustling city whilst taking on daring tricks and stunts. The title is popular in tier 1 markets such as the UK, US and France and will feature Bidstack’s in-game and in-menu ads.

The hyper-casual game Magic Tiles Hop Ball 3D is the final title to be added to Bidstack’s portfolio and is available to players on Android devices. The title will feature non-intrusive ads in-game and in-menu serving gamers in popular markets such as the UK, US, Germany and Brazil.

Integrating Bidstack’s technology will help Game Tap Studios to open up a new, sustainable monetisation channel that is designed to protect the gaming experience for players. The in-game and in-menu ads will create brand awareness in gameplay and a performance option for advertisers through the game’s menus and loading screens. Both formats will blend in seamlessly and offer highly viewable and interactive touchpoints for advertisers that are looking to connect with the growing and elusive gaming audience.

Of the partnership,Hamza Khalid, Co-Founder at Game Tap Studios said “We’re delighted to be working with Bidstack. They provide the ease of onboarding, integration and monetisation of our games with great brands. They are an ideal partner for us.”

Antoine Jullemier, Bidstack’s Head of Supply added “We are so pleased to welcome Game Tap Studios as one of our gaming partners. They produce excellent mobile games and our monetisation solutions blend into their games in a way that doesn’t intrude on the gaming experience.

Adding another three high-quality titles to our growing portfolio of games is great news for our advertising partners and another endorsement of the quality of our technology. We are looking forward to a long and successful partnership with the Game Tap team.”

Anzu and Saber Interactive partner to bring advertisers into the highly anticipated Dakar Desert Rally when it launches this year on PC and consoles

In-game advertising company Anzu has secured an exclusive deal with Saber Interactive, the global game publisher and developer, to offer advertisers a chance to communicate with their audiences via the highly anticipated upcoming racer Dakar Desert Rally.

The new AAA title is the official game of Dakar Rally, the largest rally race on the planet, hosted by the Amaury Sport Organisation and broadcast each year across 70 TV channels in 190 countries. 1,065 drivers and 578 vehicles took part in 2021’s race, and clips of the rally have been viewed online by over 59.8M people, with an additional 76.8M Facebook and Instagram story views.

Fans worldwide have been anticipating news of a new official Dakar rally video game title. This past December, Saber Interactive revealed that the title would launch in 2022 and feature an enhanced Dakar rally experience with over 30 stages of full rally racing, an immense open world with seasons and dynamic weather, official road books to navigate, and a garage stocked with licensed vehicles, including motorcycles, cars, trucks, quads, and SSVs.

The game’s development team is committed to creating an immersive game experience that faithfully brings the Dakar Rally to gamers. Anzu is helping the team replicate that; advertisers will be able to run their banner and video ads within Anzu’s in-game ad placements, which will take the form of 3D objects like roadside billboards and banners. They will also be able to take advantage of a variety of custom integration options, including custom vehicles which can be painted with brand colors, logos, and even have the driver wear a custom uniform. There are also options for roadside flags that can be branded with a product logo and different colors, and garage takeovers, where brands can add custom wall banners and items to decorate the building.

The non-disruptive nature and expert optimization of Anzu’s ad placements also mean brands will benefit from extremely high engagement rates without disrupting the player experience. Advertisers will also benefit from the low fraud rates associated with in-game advertising. HUMAN reports that Anzu’s IVT score for mobile is 0.16% and for PC is 0.47%. Comscore also reports a 0.39% score for video and 0.44% for display campaigns, compared to a 6% benchmark. Anzu also works with other industry leaders to measure ad viewability, fraud levels, and brand impact.

Alex Yerukhimovich, VP Games, Anzu, said: “We’ve been working closely with Saber Interactive to ensure our ad placements are perfectly positioned to enhance both the player and advertising experience. This is a great opportunity for advertisers to showcase their campaigns in a visually stunning AAA title, and for players to experience races with real ads that are relevant to the setting alongside the track. Just like they would expect to see if they were watching a real race, making the experience all the more authentic.
More and more advertisers are making in-game advertising a larger part of their digital ad strategies. As the anticipation continues to grow around this title, we’re looking forward to bringing many into the Dakar experience to reach its millions of diverse and dedicated fans who stretch across the entire globe.”

Our Saber Porto team has been passionately working on Dakar Desert Rally and is focused on making this one of the biggest and most authentic rally racing games ever,” said Todd Hollenshead, Head of Publishing at Saber Interactive. “Our goal is to bring Dakar to life in a realistic and fun way, and it’s been great to see that passion mirrored by the talented team at Anzu through their industry-leading technology and expertise. We’re working closely together to ensure these ads are implemented in a way that is immersive and serve to help faithfully recreate the real-life rally experience.”

Critically acclaimed game of medieval construction destruction invites player-made UGC

Besiege, a physics building game developed and published by Spiderling Studios, launches with UGC sharing support on Xbox consoles and full mod support for PC Games Pass this week.

The critically acclaimed game will resupply players with new in-game content made by players, powered by mod.io. Player-created Machines will be available to download in-game from February 10, with developer Spiderling eager to see what their passionate creator community come up with.

“Creating & sharing war machines is at the very core of what Besiege is. Having a robust and powerful workshop where players can exchange their designs and mods is an essential tool for the community. We’re excited to see the fantastic community creations this new chapter of Besiege will bring!” says Matt Woolven, Company Director of Spiderling Studios.

Simulation games supported by mod.io have over 600,000 pieces of mod content made by players, which have been downloaded over 100M times in 2021. Official mods for supported games on consoles are proving extremely popular as a unique feature new to the platforms, with downloads of user created content downloaded upwards of five times as often compared to PC.

“Player choice matters more now than ever before, giving players the unique opportunity to play the game they love, their way. As the first PC, consoles, mobile and VR official mod solution, we’ve been delighted to help Spiderling Studios connect further with fans.” says Scott Reismanis, CEO and Co-Founder of mod.io.

mod.io enables mods created by players to be curated for quality and safety, making them available across all platforms where the game can be purchased and played. The core goal of mod.io is to make modding official, accessible, and available everywhere.

mod.io launched in 2019 and is now used by more than 90 games including Skater XL, Deep Rock Galactic, Humankind, Fireworks Mania and SnowRunner. mod.io helps studios grow their creator communities, pioneering the adoption of mods in games spanning PC, console, mobile and VR platforms. Each month, more than 17 million pieces of user-generated content are distributed using mod.io to over 3 million players. Annually, that’s hundreds of millions of pieces of content, made by fans, shared with their community, and supported by the developer whose product continually evolves.

Besiege is now available across Windows, Humble, GOG and Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC Games Pass from this week.

Playable Factory, a leading creator of playable ads for mobile games and brands, announces Gearbox Video, a new tool that enables mobile gaming companies to easily create video variations of mobile gameplay with zero coding experience.

Gearbox Video generates gameplay videos for mobile games developed with the Unity engine. Crucially, the new tool empowers mobile games marketers to easily record numerous variations of gameplay, drastically reducing the time and resource needed for effective A/B testing. Gearbox Video outputs will be used for marketing and advertising campaigns.

Historically, making video assets for mobile games marketing has been a laborious process. Creating videos with different outcomes, such as beating a level versus failing it, meant marketing teams had to play and record gameplay levels over and over again, and required heavy developer involvement. With the advent of Gearbox Video, mobile games marketers can now create multiple variations of gameplay videos with minimal developer input.

Gökçe Nur Oguz, CEO and Co-Founder of Playable Factory, commented:

“Video is the most used creative medium amongst gaming companies to promote their games. But, while it’s easy to create a single gameplay video, it’s hard to create, iterate and find the one that performs well. Doing so requires shooting several versions, in different formats and featuring different assets, using A/B testing to determine which performs best – and this can be a very time-consuming process. Our new tool massively reduces the time and technical expertise required – and therefore the cost – by bringing everything into one web-based tool for the first time ever. With this speed and flexibility, marketing teams can carry out more A/B testing and enjoy better results from better performing videos, while allowing developers to focus on creating more hit games.”

Filiz Ünal, Marketing Art Lead at Coda, said:

“We’ve already had the opportunity to review the games on Gearbox Video. Since it’s still in its early phase, we know there will be more powerful features in near future. But for now I can clearly say that Gearbox Video is very easy to use!”

As the Gearbox Video tool is entirely web-based, users can rapidly record and edit gameplay videos with no installations and no coding knowledge. This creates unprecedented freedom for marketing teams to make variations on previously saved videos and test new iterations against their existing best-performing versions. The tool’s post-processing capabilities allow users to enhance their videos with additional graphical and audio effects. This streamlined video production process brings gameplay variations, real-time editing and post-production editing into one no-code, web-based tool for the first time. Video assets created with Gearbox Video can be used for a variety of marketing purposes, from playable ads to video trailers.