EA and Microsoft Snuggle Up in Advertising Deal
Massive and Electronic Arts extend deal
Electronic Arts and Massive, a company owned by Microsoft, have announced an expansion and two year extension of their agreement that sees Massive supplying in-game advertising to EA games.
The companies tell us that the deal will extend "the participation of current titles in the Massive network as well as incorporating additional, highly anticipated games over the course of the deal." The deal includes Xbox 360 and PC versions of games.
Included will be the next two iterations of several EA Sports titles, including Madden and NBA Live. It was also confirmed that Burnout Paradise will join Need for Speed ProStreet in getting the in-game advertising treatment.
EA and Massive first entered into an advertising agreement back in Summer 2006.
Massive currently places ads for the likes of Ford Motor Co. in the US, Rogers (a telecommunications company) in Canada, and Puma in Europe.
“EA strongly believes that dynamic in-game advertising is an important growth area for our business, and is one of many opportunities we are pursuing in growing the advertising market”, uttered Kathy Vrabeck, president of the Casual Entertainment Label at EA. “We selected Massive because they are the industry leader in this space with a global sales footprint, solid brand recognition and in-depth experience in video game advertising.”
A question that came to mind is, how closely are Massive and the Xbox (Entertainment and Devices) division linked, if they are linked at all? SPOnG has contacted Massive to find out if revenues generated by Massive are funnelled into the gaming division, but no comment was available at the time of press.
The companies tell us that the deal will extend "the participation of current titles in the Massive network as well as incorporating additional, highly anticipated games over the course of the deal." The deal includes Xbox 360 and PC versions of games.
Included will be the next two iterations of several EA Sports titles, including Madden and NBA Live. It was also confirmed that Burnout Paradise will join Need for Speed ProStreet in getting the in-game advertising treatment.
EA and Massive first entered into an advertising agreement back in Summer 2006.
Massive currently places ads for the likes of Ford Motor Co. in the US, Rogers (a telecommunications company) in Canada, and Puma in Europe.
“EA strongly believes that dynamic in-game advertising is an important growth area for our business, and is one of many opportunities we are pursuing in growing the advertising market”, uttered Kathy Vrabeck, president of the Casual Entertainment Label at EA. “We selected Massive because they are the industry leader in this space with a global sales footprint, solid brand recognition and in-depth experience in video game advertising.”
A question that came to mind is, how closely are Massive and the Xbox (Entertainment and Devices) division linked, if they are linked at all? SPOnG has contacted Massive to find out if revenues generated by Massive are funnelled into the gaming division, but no comment was available at the time of press.
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Comments
SuperSaiyan4 19 Mar 2008 11:05
1/2
I dont quite understand the wording here:
'Electronic Arts and Massive, a company owned by Microsoft'
'A question that came to mind is, how closely are Massive and the Xbox (Entertainment and Devices) division linked, if they are linked at all?'
Does Microsoft own Massive??
Because it also says this which is confusing:
EA and Massive first got together back in Summer 2006.
???????
'Electronic Arts and Massive, a company owned by Microsoft'
'A question that came to mind is, how closely are Massive and the Xbox (Entertainment and Devices) division linked, if they are linked at all?'
Does Microsoft own Massive??
Because it also says this which is confusing:
EA and Massive first got together back in Summer 2006.
???????
TimSpong 19 Mar 2008 11:37
2/2
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
Does Microsoft own Massive??
Yes. "Massive Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corp."
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
'A question that came to mind is, how closely are Massive and the Xbox (Entertainment and Devices) division linked, if they are linked at all?'
Yup - where do the revenues from this MS sub' go? If they go to E&D Div, do they contribute to a notion that this division is profitable?
If they don't, why the bloody hell don't they, as Massive makes its cash from gamers?
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
Because it also says this which is confusing:
EA and Massive first got together back in Summer 2006.
EA and Massive first got together back in Summer 2006.
They did. See over here.
Not in a biblical sense though... they came together as a deal.
I can see how the wording might be a little confusing. Will amend.
Cheers
Tim