Axe billboard
in Splinter Cell

In the Rainbox Six Vegas videogame, your special ops agent stumbles upon a jar of Axe body wash. Spraying the container with bullets unlocks a 60-second video of bloopers aimed at male teenagers and young adults (from an AP report).

This is the new era of videogame advertising, where a brand's marketing is deeply embedded into a game's code. Software developers are now coordinating with marketing executives and advertising gurus alike from the game's conception.

For more than two decades, programmers have tucked silly surprises into the recesses of computer games - from the 1980 Atari 2600 game "Adventure" to the current hit "Scarface: The World Is Yours." Only recently have game companies found ways to profit from these quirks.

"Purist gamers see this development as negative, and it can ruin the game for someone," said Peer Schneider, vice-president of content publishing at IGN Entertainment. "But our kids don't see it as negative. They see it as an unexpected thing in the game."