Microsoft’s Massive in-game ad business takes hits among 3,000 overall layoffs
[updated with new Microsoft comment] Microsoft announced a new round of layoffs today as it struggles to right itself after reporting tepid results last month. We’ve learned that Massive, the company’s in-game advertising business, suffered 28 percent like 75 percent layoffs.
Microsoft declined to comment yesterday on the Massive layoffs but offered a correction today, saying the layoffs were not as high as we thought.
Today’s cuts amounted to more than 3,000 jobs and are part of… Continue Reading
Struggling in-game ad firm IGA Worldwide seeks investments or possible sale
IGA Worldwide, a company that inserts ads into video games, is struggling with the recession. The New York company is trying to close a new round of funding, but it has also put itself up for sale.
Justin Townsend, chairman (pictured below), said in a phone call today that the company’s preference is to finish closing a third round of funding within a matter of weeks. But he said the company also had a fiduciary duty… Continue Reading
THQ signs up Massive for in-game advertising
As game publishers look for more ways to pull in revenues, in-game advertising is catching on. Today, game publisher THQ is announcing that Microsoft’s Massive division will become the exclusive provider of in-game ads for THQ’s Xbox 360 and PC games.
The multi-year, multi-game deal means that Massive has landed a big account and that its business proposition is looking better for publishers under economic pressure. THQ has had a tough year and has had to… Continue Reading
NeoEdge Networks introduces way to splice ads into the middle of the action
Most casual game ads are predictable. They run a 30-second video in between levels in a game, or roll the video after you’ve finished. But NeoEdge Networks has introduced a way to make those the placement of ads much more flexible — and possibly quite annoying to gamers.
NeoEdge Networks allows game companies to insert ads into their downloadable PC games and it finds advertisers who want to put ads into those games. Today, it is… Continue Reading
IGA Worldwide delivering in-game ads to 30 million users
IGA Worldwide said its in-game advertising network now reaches 30 million gamers on four distinct gaming platforms: the PC, Mac, Flash, and the PlayStation 3.
That makes the New York company a force to be reckoned with in the nascent market for advertising inside games. IGA has released the fourth version of its software development kit that lets game developers take sections of their games and designate them as capable of displaying ads.
The ads are then… Continue Reading
Google launches in-game advertising for Flash web games
After months of testing, Google is publicly launching the beta version of its AdSense for Games software. The product represents the company’s first push into a fast-growing new market — the ability to insert ads into games, either as they are being played or just after they finish.
The plan is pretty much what I reported in July, when word surfaced that the search giant was testing the ads. Its decision to enter the market with… Continue Reading
Google testing “AdSense for Games” in bid to shake up in-game advertising
Google is the sleeping giant when it comes to advertising in video games. While the company dominates search advertising, it has yet to make a big splash in video games. That could change soon, as the company has been quietly testing its “AdSense for Games” product for months.
Sources close to the matter said that the company has developed an in-game advertising technology that allows it to insert video ads into games. In demos of the… Continue Reading
IGA raises $25 million to capture future in-game ad market
IGA Worldwide, a New York-based provider of advertising that appears within video games, has raised $25 million from a collection of venture capital, private equity and large media firms.
The potential market for in-game advertising is big, even as some analysts trying to measure it are prone to hype. It made only $55 million last year, but is expected to pass $800 million in 2012 with total video game ad spending reaching $2 billion that year,… Continue Reading