Around the Net
In-Game Ads: $2 Billion by 2010?
- Mediaweek, Friday, April 14, 2006 10:15 AM
Advertising in video games will be a $2 billion business in four years, says Mitch Davis, the CEO of Massive Incorporated, the young industry's leading seller of so-called dynamic in-game advertising. This would mean that advertising in video games would account for roughly 3 percent of total media spending by 2010. Estimates on in-game ad spending have been all over the place, and Davis' estimate was far larger than forecasts made by media researchers JupiterResearch and The Yankee Group last year, Mediaweek reports. A year after launching the first dynamic in-game ad network, which allows advertisers to buy ads across a network of games played using an Internet connection, Massive reported impressive growth, including 38 network publishers in 60 different game titles and 65 million game sessions in which in-game ads were served. Its advertisers include most major film studios, as well as big consumer brands like Coca-Cola, Subway and Gillette. Massive is currently the industry's leader, boasting the largest game network and the largest pool of advertisers, but it’s still very early days in this burgeoning advertising sector, with competitors IGA, Double Fusion and Adscape Media all waiting in the wings.
