Tag Archives: in game ads

A new patent filed by Sony Computer Entertainment America details software designed to interrupt the gameplay sessions of users with advertisements.

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Microsoft is shutting down its in-game advertising unit Massive, according to sources close to the company.

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Ubi’s confirmed that Splinter Cell Conviction is to have in-game ads, and has provided advertisers with “heat maps” to show where best to place their creatives.

The hot spots show where players are most likely to go, natch.

The news came from a Microsoft Advertising’s Gaming Upfront presentation in New York last night.

More on Joystiq.

In-games ads. Remember them? Microsoft hasn’t forgotten. It’s in-game ads revenue is going crazy ape shit, according to JJ Richards, Microsoft’s Massive in-game ad boss.

“For our 2009 fiscal year, Massive achieved an impressive double-digit year-on-year revenue growth in the face of one of the worst economic crises of the last century,” said Richards in a blog post.

“We’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel and Massive already exceeded first quarter sales targets by more than 100 percent just one month into our new fiscal year.”

The good times are most definitely rolling, the exec added, as Massive has now booked it thousandth client campaign, “a sign of our continued momentum since selling our first dynamic ad four years ago.”

Others involved in the in-game ads trade have been thumping chests behind the scenes, recently. Hit the link to get pumped.

Microsoft in-game ad agency Massive will be adding creatives to EA’s Madden NFL 10, NHL 10, NBA Live 10 and Need For Speed Shift this year, the unit’s announced.

Activision’s Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero, Band Hero, Tony Hawk: Ride and Blur, and THQ’s UFC 2009 Undisputed and MX vs. ATVT ReflexT, among others, will also be served by Massive this year.

The firm’s also secured the rights to deliver Battle.net ads in 2010.

More on Edge.

Sony’s pulled an in-game ad from WipEout HD after it increased load times to up to 20 seconds, EG reports.

“The ad has been removed from WipEout HD and we are investigating the situation to ensure that any in-game advertising does not affect gameplay,” said a SCEE rep.

Check out this video to see what all the fuss was about.

Update – The ad’s been pulled.

When you boot up a game for the specific purpose of shattering the sound barrier in ludicrously speedy hovercrafts, 20-second load screens are probably the last thing you’re hoping for. However, after striking a new ad deal with Double Fusion, Sony seems to have given WipEout HD players just that.

According to a report by Industry Gamers, these new ad-addled loading screens can last up to 20 seconds — more than doubling the comparatively zippy 8-9 second loads players encountered before.

So, what’s the story from the front lines? Have any of you been forced to throw on the breaks for these turtle-slow advertisements?

Screen Digest’s predicted that in-game advertising will be a $1 billion business within five years, according to this Media Week story.

A combination of audience media habits and the “unique advantages of dynamic in-game advertising” is forecast to drive spending to about one and a half percent of all digital advertising, says the report.

At that size, Screen Digest has predicted, the format will be impossible to ignore.

Full thing through there.

The IGA has claimed today that 36 percent of gamers that see an in-game advert go on to seek information about the related product.

The nugget comes from a new promo vid from the agency, viewable here.

The movie also claims that 90 percent of gamers recall brands they’ve seen through in-game adverts.

We’re not lying. Watch and see.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has spent $44,465.78 on in-game advertising in the run-up to the US election, Gamespot reports.

The campaign, which was widely reported as appearing in Burnout Paradise, started on October 6 and ends on November 3.

The ads span 18 games, apparently.

Details were released through the Obama campaign’s pre-election filing with the Federal Election Commission.

More through there.

IGA will supply in-game ads to Activision’s PS3 games, thanks to a deal announced today.

The first game to be served by the deal will be Guitar Hero World Tour.

“Activision has one of the most impressive stables of games in the video game industry,” said IGA head Justin Townsend.

“To partner with them demonstrates the appeal of in-game advertising to marketers and consumers, alike. We will be able to connect more brands with engaged users than ever before.”

Press release after the link.

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We weren’t entirely convinced when Gearbox announced it’d partnered with Double Fusion to provide in-game ads for WWII shooter Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway, but the developer has shown off how it’s all going to work and it’s looking very “proper” indeed.

As you can see, the ads in the game are going to be from the era itself, the game being set in the ill-fated Operation Market Garden towards the end of the War. The Philips logo used on top of the Philips factory in Eindhoven is historically correct. There’s a big update there on how the ads are going to be incorporated into the game, which looks likely to set a standard far beyond the now normal “billboard” ads we’re used to seeing in games like Burnout Paradise.

As a note, the historical link between the Philips factory in Eindhoven and the game was one of the “sweeteners” behind the amBX-Ubisoft deal announced at CES this year. All true.

Massive will be serving all EA’s in-game PC inventory from now on, according to a new deal confirmed between the two companies today. The in-game ad broker already handles EA’s 360 stock.

Over the next two years, games like Madden, NBA Live, NASCAR and NHL will all be made available to Massive’s campaigns. In addition, Massive will remain the exclusive in-game ad network on PC and Xbox 360 for EA’s blockbuster Need For Speed franchise, including Need for Speed Carbon and Need for Speed ProStreet. Massive will also incorporate dynamic advertising into Burnout Paradise, although quite how this fits in with IGA’s deal to serve the game hasn’t been clarified.

“It’s a very important step,” said Massive CEO Cory Van Arsdale. “We’ve had a great history, but this gives us access to a lot more inventory that’s coming down the pipe the next two years. This will help shift advertisers from thinking this is a neat way to spend some money into making it a primary item in their media buys. Instead of thinking of [in-game advertising] on a quarter to quarter basis, now they can think of it from year to year.”

Good feature on the whole shebang here.

Blizzard has issued a statement saying StarCraft II isn’t going to have in-game ads in it after Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said the game could be a potential test-bed for the emergent marketing method.

“We have no plans to have in-game advertising in StarCraft II,” Blizzard said here. “We believe Bobby was actually referring to Battle.net, which has always included ads.”

Kotick mentioned in-game ads in reference to StarCraft II in the same speech in which he talked about a Call of Duty MMO.

“On the Blizzard side, [we need to] really be figuring out things like the StarCraft business model for the future, with in-game advertising and sponsorship, [which have] really not been something that has moved the dial for anybody in the videogame industry, but that we think presents tremendous opportunity for the future,” he said at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference.

“[Blizzard] has been thinking about how StarCraft, because it is a short-session experience, can actually be the model for in-game advertising and sponsorship and tournament play and ladder play for the future.”

According to this, Sony is to provide an “open platform” to in-game ads in PS3, and now has internal team selling space on PSN titles such as Pain.

The maker of the PlayStation3 system will offer an open platform, meaning in-game-ad-serving companies Double Fusion, IGA and Google-owned AdScape all will be able to sell ads in games that run on PS3, according to people familiar with Sony’s plans. The three companies will strike deals with the major game publishers creating PS3 games, such as Electronic Arts, Activision and Ubisoft. Increasingly, those who score the plum publisher deals will turn out to be the winners in the competitive and fast-growing space.

The article doesn’t sound amazingly convincing, if we’re geing honest, but worth a nose nonetheless.

According to this, a survey has shown that 90 percent of a 1,500-strong sample of consumers backed free, ad-supported games, and that 34 percent of those questioned clicked on ads within sample games. The sample was 81 percent female, with the “vast majority” over the age of 30.

“We have been evolving our customer sales model based on user’s feedback since we created in-game streaming video advertising in the PC casual games space in 2006,” said Chris Houtzer, senior director of new media at RealGames, the company behind the findings. “The right mix of advertising in our games gives us greater flexibility in providing advanced game-play options for our customers, sharing in incremental revenue with game developers, and delivering a competitive ROI for advertisers.”

IGA will sell in-game advertising for EA’s Burnout Paradise, including campaigns from Burger king, Diesel, Gillette, CompUSA.com, Sling Media, Vizio, JL Audio and others on billboards, retail stores, radio stations and vehicles in the game.

“We are extremely excited to partner with EA as the Burnout series continues to be such a smashing success around the world,” said Justin Townsend, CEO of IGA Worldwide. “The in-game advertising market is expected to reach nearly £340m/$670m this year which would indicate marketers, game developers and publishers like EA are fast becoming more convinced of the many branding and financial benefits that advertising within this medium continues to deliver.”

Bit of a coup for IGA, this. Burnout Paradise is now topping the UK charts, so it’s perfect timing to get involved. Looks like the whole in-game ads “thing” may finally be starting to live up to the promise. Fingers crossed for Justin, there.