Google gets game

In something of an unusual twist of late, Google would appear to be playing catch up to Microsoft for once. The Redmond giants bought the market leader in the in-game advertising business, Massive Inc, last May for close on $200 million. Today Google has confirmed it has finalized the deal to buy an in-game advertising business itself, namely the relatively small San Francisco based Adscape. Relatively small describes the cost of the acquisition as well, although Google is keeping the actual figure close to its chest, the word on the vine is that $23 million is the order of the day. Whether that turns out to be a good value investment remains to be seen, especially as Microsoft/Massive already has hugely important deals with Ubisoft Entertainment, THQ and Take-Two Interactive wrapped up.