Electronic Arts, the world's largest video game publisher, will begin serving ads to players while their games are in progress, thanks to new deals with two ad networks, Massive Inc. and IGA
Worldwide.
Massive Inc.--purchased by Microsoft in May--will give Electronic Arts access to Microsoft's popular gaming console, the Xbox 360. That product is the first of the
next-generation gaming consoles on the market, ahead of Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. The other network, IGA Worldwide, will serve ads from its stable of advertisers on one of Electronic
Arts' popular PC titles.
Massive and IGA both offer technology platforms that allow game publishers and developers to insert dynamic, in-game ads into their titles. The ad placements often take
the form of "outdoor" ads such as posters and billboards, served in the game's virtual environment.
The agreements follow months of speculation about whether Electronic Arts intended to enter the
in-game advertising industry via partnerships with existing networks, or by developing their own ad-serving capabilities.
Chip Lange, Electronic Arts vice president for online commerce, said the
company might tap still other ad networks in the future. "This is really the first step in building out our dynamic in-game advertising business, and the model calls for multiple partners," he said.
"We expect similar agreements to be coming like this on future titles, and it may or may not involve these two companies."
Lange added that the company hasn't ruled out designing its own dynamic,
in-game ad platform. "We are weighing the internal versus external opportunities for dynamic in-game advertising, and we continue to evaluate that on a title-by-title basis," he said.
Justin
Townsend, CEO of IGA, said that scoring EA as a publisher partner was a major coup for his firm, which has been fighting with Microsoft-owned Massive Incorporated for leadership in the in-game ad
space. "EA is really the crème de la crème--it doesn't get much bigger or better than EA," he said.
Mitch Davis, CEO of Massive, said that the addition of EA was a major boost to their
publisher network, which includes top companies like Activision, Ubisoft, Vivendi Universal and THQ.
The first title Massive will be selling into is "Need for Speed: Carbon," a racing game slated
for release in November; the deal includes several more as-yet unannounced titles. Massive declined to disclose which of its brand advertisers will be buying space in EA's titles, but the company has
worked with Best Buy, Coca-Cola, the U.S. Navy, Paramount, Panasonic, Warner Bros. and NBC in the past.
IGA's first Electronic Arts title will be "Battlefield 2142," the latest installment in
the popular Battlefield franchise, slated to launch on October 17 for the PC, with two more unannounced titles yet to come. Townsend declined to disclose which advertisers will be served into the
game; previous advertisers with IGA include T-Mobile, Orange, Fox Studios and FHM.