RSSMicrosoft to Expand into In-Game Ads
By Ed Oswald | Published April 26, 2006, 1:09 PM
Microsoft is set acquire Massive, a start-up that places ads in video games, next week in a deal estimated at $200 to $400 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. Massive's advertising clients include Coca-Cola and Honda among others, and it has deals with game publishers Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, and THQ.
With publishers regularly connecting their games to the Internet, dynamic ads within those games are now possible. Previously, ads were sold in static form, but they quickly would become stale as they could not be changed based on new promotions.
However, with the advent of Internet-connected gaming, it has opened a whole new way of advertising, which Massive has begun to exploit. Ads can be targeted to a certain demographic, and even change based on the gamer's geographic location and time of day.
The in-game advertising market is still in its infancy, with companies spending only $56 million last year, up 64 percent from the previous year. But research firm Yankee Group says that by the end of the decade the market will balloon to a $700 million a year industry.
This massive growth would be the result of game makers expanding dynamic in-game advertising from mainly PC-based games to titles on next generation consoles such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Revolution.
Analysts see the Massive acquisition as a way for Microsoft to get a leg up on competitor Google by offering its advertising platform in unique ways.
The Redmond company would likely roll Massive's platform into its adCenter self-service advertising product, but neither Massive nor Microsoft is publicly commenting on the deal.
WANTED : Programmer to write ad-blocker for games. ;-)
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|Hmm... guess this means all the games will be free now, since they're being sponsered by advertisements. Right? :P
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|answer .... Firewall, ban ip of of server sending adverts, and u will get only static ads Sorted.
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|the last thing i want is to play oblivion and the coca cola music pop up in the bar
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|Don't boycott the games, boycott the advertisers, and tell them why you are doing it. I used to get this stupid free newspaper delivered to me all the time, and I called and asked them to stop delivering the paper and they didn't. So I called the advertisers, and told them tha I would not be using their services because they advertise in a paper that doesn't respect my privacy, and boom, no more papers.
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|Wait...
How does delivering a paper to you dis-respect your privacy?
I think you are confusing privacy with pestering.
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|Well, this incursion into our "gaming experiance" can easily be defeated by boycotting the games that allow in-game advertisements. There are few things more annoying to me than having my gaming experiance (which I have invested significant expense in to play properly) rudely interrupted by some stupid "pop-up". If the software venders find that there "ad-enabled" games aren't selling - the problem will take care of itself.
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|Did anyone mention pop-ups?
Ever play a racing sim? Billboards everywhere. Why not put something useful on them?
Ever played a shooter? All those posters and soda-machines around? Why not make 'em useful.
Do they detract away from the game when they're fake? Why would they do so when they're real.
Don't be an idiot.
Ads are not Evil. It's the extremes some folks will take them to that are stupid.
Ad-enabled games will be fine if they keep the ads respectful of the game itself. Billboards in WoWmight be a bad idea, for instance. Whereas, in NFS:MW, they'd fit in perfectly.
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|I agree, ads in the games when placed properly do not detract from the games in the least.
quite a few of the games I have have static ads in them, to say the least I am more annoyed that there advertising something thats already happend.
Who knows, it might make games cheaper. *Dreaming*
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|Well if the game is free, then sure give me all the in game ads you can throw at me. However if I paid 50 dollars for a cd and the experience. Why do they get to double dip off me? Thats pretty greedy if you ask me.
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|Ads are a big turn off for me, I have a tendancy to be turned off their product simply because I feel they are "stuffing" it in my face and I seriously dislike pushy sales people.
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|I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. Advertisments are already thrown in our face just about everywhere else.
Sometimes, I often wonder what good it actually does.
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|Well........I guess advertisements for real products can improve realism for some games such as swat4 which already has inbuilt streaming ads, as long as it funds game developement and dosen't use too much resources then to be honest I don't really give an ass(donkey).
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|i agree with you
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