Nearly 7 out of 10 Americans play videogames, spending a combined $7.4 billion to feed their habit. But if the attraction of playing games was an escape from nonstop marketing in the real world, they're in for a disappointment. Greedy advertisers want a piece of the action and are expected to drive in-game advertising sales up to $852 million by 2011, according to ABI Research. Startup Double Fusion plans to help spike the numbers by allowing developers to add ads to games without hardcoding spots during development.

For instance, ads served in Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas appear on virtual billboard kiosks — the kind you'd run into in a mall — that held fake ads themed to the game's environment. Even after Ubisoft launched its in-game advertising service early this year, real ads could only appear in the kiosks. With Double Fusion's software, Ubisoft would be able to create spots on the fly. Billboards could appear on any surface. If it works, Double Fusion has created a boon for publishers and developers — and a bane for game players everywhere.