Free Games at a Price: NeoEdge unveils overlay ads for games

NeoEdge recently launched overlays for downloadable casual games. These games typically offer a  30/60 minute free trial with an attempt to upsell you to pony up $15-20 to buy the games after the trial expires. Companies like NeoEdge are helping make these games free altogether in exchange for advertising display. Overlay ads are advertiser logos and buttons served within the game play. In the screenshot below, check out the ad for “The Office” in the bottom left corner. Ads are clickable to advertiser sites.

I’ve always been an advocate of monetizing digital content (videos, games, music, photos, etc) best you can without passing the cost to consumers. But at the same time, I believe in providing a fun and engaging entertainment environment for the consumer. While the overlay ads satisfy the former, it falls short of fulfilling the latter. Overlay and games do not work together — at least in this version offered by NeoEdge. These overlay ads can get accidentally clicked up and distract users from the game, which in essence hurt the user experience in a big way.

A more elegant way to present overlay advertiser branding would be to serve the logos while the game load ups. Create an interstitial page with “This Game is Sponsored by:” and show the advertiser logo. This would not interfere with NeoEdge’s pre-roll ads (video ads served before game loads up) as all download games require several seconds to load anyway. This interstitial page can also be served during all game pauses or at the end of each level and game play. You still have the users attention without interrupting the actual game play.

There will be a place for overlays within download games. It will come down to an issue of how and when the overlay is displayed.