Great question in the October 2006 issue of Wired magazine: “Will in-game advertising ruin videogames?”. Great answer from Angel Munoz, Founder of the Cyberathlete Professional League: “Videogames were the last bastion of commercial-free entertainment. Ask any hardcore gamer: With few exceptions, they’d rather have a pure experience without virtual billboards promoting some unrelated product. The trick is to provide solutions in real time. How about a game where you enter your zip code during registration? Then, after several hours of continuous play, the game could ask, “Are you hungry?” and direct you to restaurants that deliver in your area. That would be a lot better than some lonely logo on an easily ignored virtual wall.”

What it means: seems like this needs-based local videogame advertising could be done by a local directory publisher through partnerships with Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft (for console gaming). Something to explore there for sure.