March 18, 2008
Microsoft and EA sign massive in-game advertising deal
Ever so slowly, the two gigantic balls of clay meld into one. Soon, will anyone be able to tell where one ends and the next begins? If you’re the type to freak out and cite 1984 when just about anything in business happens, it’s probably time to get out your tin foil hat. Microsoft and Electronic Arts are in business together.
Microsoft owned subsidiary Massive Inc. and Electronic Arts have inked a deal for in-game advertising in EA games until through 2010. Massive Inc. is an advertising company specializing in placing ads within online games. Basically, the type of ads you see randomly changing in games from time to time. The deal is an extension of a current deal, but it will greatly expand the number of titles EA places Massive’s ads in.
While much of the tech world worries about the fate of online advertising due to the Yahoo and Microsoft deal, this one may have just as far reaching implications. If Microsoft can position itself as the de facto standard in game advertising, with their own published titles and EA’s, then it becomes the Google of video games. One company having a very strong controlling share of what many believe will become a lucrative $650 million market by the end of this new deal.
What does this all mean for gamers? Expect a lot more ads plastered around within those games you’re already paying $10 more for than you used to.
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Written by: Justin Young
Filed Under: Games
Tags: advertising, business, deal, Electronic Arts, Google, Massive Inc., Microsoft
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gamerz
March 18, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Anyone who has played EA’s ‘Fight Night Round 3″ knows that they have no taste in putting advertisements in the game.
They plastered the Burger King logo everywhere and even made that weird King guy a trainer in the game that you have to use to level-up.
Maybe you could look the other way if they had all the great boxers throughout history, but they cheeped out all the way. Every version of the game drops great boxers and adds lesser known ones.
Sorry to be so gloomy but EA just has no class when it comes to in-game advertising.
jerkface
March 18, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Look on the bright side. Like the current credit crisis eventually the morons responsible for ‘ad revenue’ will realise how ineffective advertising is and they will all crash and burn.