MS buys games ad weavers

Stan Beer
Saturday, 06 May 2006 03:14

IT Industry - Strategy

It is now offical that Microsoft will buy New York based games product placement company Massive. Although the financial details remain undisclosed the original amount $200 million to $400 million, as reported last week, is believed to be in the ball park of the purchase price. Massive’s technology for weaving dynamic, relevant ads into video games will extend next-generation advertising across Microsoft properties and beyond.

As reported in iTWire previously, the video games market is like a giant that never stops growing. Each year it keeps getting bigger and some people say that the games entertainment business will one day be bigger than the movies. These days the graphics and animation is so good in interactive games that product placement is a natural. Microsoft already does it, promoting itself in Xbox games such as Top Spin.

The technology from Massive will enable it to place ads like billboards, watches, mobile phones, cars, sneakers, T-shirts and anything else you can think of that form the increasingly life like back drops to games use these days. Massive has online technology which enables the ads in games connected to the internet change over time, enabling advertisers to buy time slots.

Microsoft has said that the first ads from its new Massive acquisition will be placed in Xbox and Xbox 360 games connected to its Xbox Live service.