Square Enix ventures into ad-supported casual games

Square Enix has partnered with Japanese portal site Nifty to launch a series of simple, casual games supported by inter-level advertising.

The games, which can be played for free at Nifty’s game portal site ‘@nifty Games’, use a technique co-developed by the two companies called ‘In-Stage Advertising’, in which Flash adverts are streamed in-between levels.

The partnership was established to make use of Nifty’s know-how in the online and advertising spaces and Square Enix’s game development resources and experience.

Square Enix has been developing casual games for the portal since April of this year, and began trialling the In-Stage Advertising scheme at that time. Based on the results of the trial, the companies have announced that advertisers can expect a click-through rate almost 10x higher than that of standard banner advertising.

The initiative marks a further diversification for Square Enix, which has recently been strengthening its casual and serious games focus to complement its traditional gaming titles.