Microsoft Buys Massive
Microsoft is acquiring Massive, a company that does in-game advertising. Massive sells a lot of those billboards, vending machines and other types of ads you see in games more and more these days. Cnet’s Daniel Terdiman says:
But by buying Massive, Microsoft is putting itself in a position to cash in both from the sale of games, and from the revenue generated by the inserted ads. This will also allow Microsoft to maintain more control over how the ads are placed and to consider new business models in which it could potentially allow the ads to subsidize lower prices on its game titles.
Joystiq pretty much says the same thing, that Microsoft is creating multiple revenue streams. They have a list of seventeen (17!) revenue streams the Xbox 360 already has, everything from music video distribution to Xbox Live sponsored weekends.
[...] Google has agreed to acquire Adscape, a company that puts ads inside of video games, for $23 million. Google had missed out on Massive, a company Microsoft picked up for $200-400 million about a year ago, and is going to have to settle for the much smaller Adscape, which it will have to build into a bigger player. Judging by Google’s great success with dMarc, I’d assume nothing at this point. Adscape is a video game advertising company whose AdverPlay product lets developers place dynamic ads right inside the game and Real Virtual Gateway product enables two-way text, audio and video communication via SMS Text or eMail. [...]
Pingback by » Google Buying Video Game Ads Company » InsideGoogle » part of the Blog News Channel | February 20, 2007
[...] Madden, NASCAR, Tiger Woods PGA, NHL, and Skate. The deal should bring some good revenue back for the $200 million Microsoft paid for Massive, and dealing with such a large industry player should help Microsoft hold off Google in this [...]
Pingback by » Microsoft’s Massive Signs EA Sports Ad Deal » InsideMicrosoft - part of the Blog News Channel | July 25, 2007
[...] bought AdScape in February inorder to enter the growing game ad market, a year after Microsoft picked up Massive, a similar, but larger company. Google paid $23 million, while Microsoft paid $200-400 million for [...]
Pingback by » Google Video Game Adds Are Pre-Roll, Not In-Game » InsideGoogle-part of the Blog News Channel | November 9, 2007