City of Heroes – Bringing Optional In-Game Ads to Paragon City and the Rogue Isles

With in-game advertising on a roll these days, it was probably only a matter of time before a company like NCsoft joined in. Thanks to a recent agreement with Double Fusion, the publisher will now be featuring real-world ads within City of Heroes. The article continues after the jump.

Last month, Jon Epstein of Double Fusion spoke about the value of in-game advertising to the industry. Well, it seems that the game ad provider is following up on that – Double Fusion has joined forces with NCsoft to bring real-life ads to the MMORPG City of Heroes (CoH).

NCsoft General Manager Brian Clayton said that the advertising move will help in the reinvestment of the CoH franchise. Remember that NCsoft acquired all City of Heroes intellectual property rights from Cryptic Studios last year. As such, the publisher needs an extra revenue stream with which to continue development on the MMORPG.

If you City of Heroes fans are concerned about this issue, fret not. Clayton has reassured gamers that all in-game ads are optional. CoH players who prefer not to see any of the new ads may opt out via the game’s option menu. The NCsoft team will also take steps to insure that only contextually relevant ads will be included.

All in all, NCsoft will observe how things will go from hereon. Depending on how it works out, the publisher may even include player-created content in the future.