Roundup: Sony opens to online advertisers, Electronic Arts confirms Rupture acquisition and more

Here’s the latest action:

Sony opens to in-game ads — The company is about to announce support for ads in the PlayStation 3 video game console, and in-game advertising company IGA Worldwide will be the first to announce a deal, according to Forbes and other publications. As video games become both more lucrative and more expensive to make, this seems like an obvious revenue source, albeit one that may not be welcomed by all gamers. No word on which games will be the first to include ads, but I think there’s something weirdly appealing about the idea that billboard space in the Grand Theft Auto games could become the equivalent of a real billboard.

EA confirms acquisition of social gaming service Rupture — Game giant Electronic Arts has confirmed its acquisition of ThreeSF, the company behind Rupture. The service is the brainchild of Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning, and there have been rumors that EA had acquired ThreeSF for $30 million. EA did not release any details on the acquisition.

Music service Pandora now available as a desktop app — The startup, which delivers a personalized music stream to users, has built a desktop application using Adobe’s AIR platform. Pandora could already be streamed to mobile devices or home entertainment systems, but as far as computers go, this move is a big step because it moves Pandora out of the web browser. It’s not exactly a subtle application that runs in the background, but instead looks almost identical to the Pandora homepage. The company says this is necessary “for now” to display ads.

YouTube adds video annotation feature — Video creators can now add informative or snarky commentary in speech bubbles or other formats to the movies they upload. I would have included a sample video, but it looks like the annotation feature doesn’t support embedded videos yet. The feature is still in testing mode, and YouTube says full functionality will eventually include embedded videos and support for multiple languages. There don’t appear to be any plans to let viewers — rather than creators — add their own annotations.

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SoCal Edison agrees to buy power from eSolar, a solar thermal company — The companies say the deal should result in the construction of 245 megawatts worth of concentrating solar towers in Southern California’s Antelope Valley by 2011.

The truth is revealed about Twitter’s constant downtime — The startup has been doing a lot of talking about the reasons behind its scaling problems, but Valleywag has an alternate explanation.