EA Extends In-Game Ad Deal
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EA has extended an agreement with Massive to provide in-game advertising for their 360 and PC titles. They originally partnered up in August 2006 and have now tacked on another two years.
Tuesday’s agreement with Massive is essentially an extension and expansion of a previous one-and-a-half year deal with the New York-based ad firm. With the new global deal, EA said the next two iterations of annual EA Sports franchises such as Madden NFL, NBA Live, NASCAR and NHL will use the Massive in-game ad network on Xbox 360. The agreement also grants Massive exclusive in-game ad rights to “a majority” of EA’s PC titles.
Opinions seem to be split on the topic of in-game ads but most have at least come to accept and tolerate them. To me they actually increase the realism and immersiveness and I prefer seeing them in. That is as long as they are naturally placed and don’t conflict with the flow of the game or become a distraction. So far they’ve been implemented in ways that haven’t done so and I would expect that to continue to be the case.