A study conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates found that gamers are willing to welcome in-game ad exposure in exchange for price cuts in games. If it means seeing a Starbucks shop on every block around GTA if they'd sell the game for half the price, why not?

Some of you may remember when McDonald's UK CEO Steve Easterbrook took a stab at the video game biz last week, relating it to child obesity.

Daily Star writer Paul Vale had a snappy comeback to the McDonald's bigwig saying that the fast food franchise should look at itself first. Read more about this in the full article after the jump!

McDonald’s UK boss Steve Easterbrook recently talked about the company's moves in light of the growing concerns regarding obesity.

While Easterbrook was quick to point out the measures they were taking to slim down their food, an off-hand statement he makes indicates that he think video games are partly the cause of growing waistlines. More details up ahead in the full article.

Well, it looks like there's no turning back now.

As it turns out, Valve is starting to test out the use of in-game ads for their titles, and the first guinea pig for this experiment is none other than Counterstrike 1.6 (screenies above, both courtesy of SK Gaming). Despite the flurry of protests that the mere mention of in-game advertising tends to generate, many game companies may soon be following Valve's lead.

While some fans argue that the sight of a real-world item being advertised inside a game tends to be detrimental to the whole experience, devs have noted that this form of advertising is actually beneficial for everyone in the long run.

After all, it generates revenue for game-makers.

Revenue equals more (and better) games.

More games equals happy gamers.

On top of that, there have been promises that the ads will remain discreet and out of the player's way.

At the moment, Valve is displaying advertisements for Portal and the upcoming Orange and Black boxes, all of which are their own products.

There have been earlier reports that Google ads may also end up invading the gaming world, and this has caused many to fear the possibility of having to encounter an in-game advertisement for Starbucks in a war-torn, World War II setting. After all, can you imagine running into an ad for McDonald's as you're crawling the trenches in games like Call of Duty or Brothers In Arms? Or perhaps one for Pedigree puppy food during an Unreal Tournament deathmatch?

On the other hand, there are also those who are willing to reach a compromise between revenue generation for the game companies and immersive gaming experience for the gamers. One point of this compromise involve the conditions which specify that ads that appear in games must be carefully chosen to match the theme and setting of the game itself.

Read the rest of the article after the Jump!

  

Those of you who were disappointed with the dual versions of Mega Man Battle Network might want to brace yourselves before reading this article. Not only will Rockman Rebirth not follow the first MMBN game in being a single version, there will be three versions! That's right, Rockman Rebirth is beating Pokemon at its own game! The three versions will be "Ice Pegasus," "Fire Leo," and "Green Dragon." Yes. They are very interesting choices. Mega Man (or Rockman in Japan) will be able to go through three different transformations. I assume each transformation is exclusive to the respective version.

Capcom has signed a deal with McDonald's to sell Mega Man toys in Happy Meals. This is most likely only for Japan. They are also working on a manga that will be published in Coro Coro Comics, much like the Mega Man Battle Network manga that was published before. The game will be out in Japan this December.

  

McDonald's has revealed its line of Happy Meal toys based on the characters from the Mario universe, that we earlier reported. The toys will be included with any Happy Meal you order. Just remember to bring a kid with you so you don't look like you're absolutely crazy! The toys seem to be based on the Mario Sports series and not the actual main Super Mario Bros. series. I still remember getting my Sonic toys from McDonald's happy meals when I was about six years old so hopefully these will be a hit too! The promotion runs from September 1st to September 21st!