Thanks for the "ad"

According to Next-Gen: GameTap, the game network that digitally distributes titles to your PC, is now offering a free to play ad-supported option for select games. Some choice quotes:

About nine months ago Snyder and the GameTap team began to realize that its paid-subscription-only model is counterproductive to expanding the reach of the compelling service.

Also, our demographic was looking for an easy way to play games without making a huge time commitment or financial commitment. So we figured why not have all options for all gamers?

This is pretty cool stuff. Like I've been saying for a while, there's a market out there for ad-supported games. We need to stop thinking about in-game ads as the "product placement" type stuff you see after you shell out $50 for the game itself. Rather, we should think about in-game ads as a new option to consume quality content for free. It just makes so much sense for everyone involved.