• by Shankar Gupta , April 6, 2006

In-game ad firm Massive Incorporated has entered into a deal with 2K Sports to place dynamic, in-game ads into Major League Baseball 2K6, the latest installment in 2K's baseball video game franchise.

"Advertising, sports, and video games all go together," said Nicholas Longano, Massive's chief marketing officer. "This gives us an opportunity as a network to really broaden the space, and give advertisers a bigger reach than before." Longano pegged the audience for MLB 2K in the hundreds of thousands.

Longano said the deal was difficult to close because of the multiple interests involved. In addition to the deal with 2K Sports, Massive forged pacts with the MLB Player's Association, MLB Properties, and MLB Advanced, to secure the rights to place advertisements alongside team logos and likenesses of players. Massive declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal, and the split of the ad revenues.

Massive will serve dynamic ads that will take the form of banners, billboards, and posters around the virtual arena, much like what are seen in real-world baseball games. The ads can be changed day-to-day via the Internet connections in the consoles playing the games, and play sessions are tracked in aggregate.

Longano said that Massive hoped to extend the deal with 2K Sports to include other titles--2K also produces NHL, NBA, and college hoops franchises. "We're always hoping that we can extend the relationships we have with all our publishers," he said. "We're hoping down the road we'll be able to serve advertising into other 2K titles." 2K sports does not currently product an NFL franchise--the exclusive rights to the football league were purchased by Electronic Arts, which thus far has not contracted with Massive Incorporated. MLB 2K was released on Monday.