Tag Archives: massive

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.

Microsoft has made 75 percent of its staff at Massive redundant.

Around 100 people were let go from the in-game ad firm, which was purchased by Microsoft in 2006.

In order to reduce costs, 3000 other staffers were let go yesterday which adds to the 1400 back in January when staff from ACE, Rare and Windows Live were culled.

5000 cuts have been planned so far, but reports say more may be necessary.

More over on GI.biz.

The writing’s been on the wall for months, but only now has Ubisoft finally finished with the formalities and said, “Oh yeah – that.”

Speaking with IGN, a Ubisoft rep confirmed that the sparse console RTS landscape won’t be seeing Massive’s blip on the radar after all.

“World of Conflict: Soviet Assault will be released for the PC later this month. A console version of World in Conflict is not planned for release at this time,” the rep said.

Bummer. And Soviet Assault’s vocal controls seem pretty much tailor-made for consoles too. Shame, that.

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.