Massive, the Microsoft-owned in-game advertising firm, has announced a multi-year agreement with Activision Blizzard that will cover advertising for a number of Xbox 360 and PC games as well as advertisements on Blizzard's Battle.net service.
On the Activision side, Market Watch is reporting that Massive has inked an 18-title deal that will include games like Guitar Hero World Tour and Quantom of Solace.
And while there won't be any in-game ads in Blizzard titles, the Battle.net service will soon be home to a slew of new advertisements.
To be honest, I'd be a huge fan of in-game advertising if there were some benefit to gamers: I'd gladly have my gnome warlock wield a
Craftsman engineering hammer and Timberland Boots of Sturdiness, if it meant knocking the cost of a World of Warcraft
subscription down to ten bucks or so. Even the billboards in racing games and the like aren't much of a problem, as they typically fit with the environment (and are easily ignored).
But we won't be seeing a smaller price tag on games, or free downloadable content, or anything that might benefit us. There's an argument to be made for defraying costs, but I've got a sinking feeling that Activision Blizzard isn't merely scraping by on the funds printed every month by the World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero juggernauts.
No, what we're seeing here is a bit more of the Activision mantra of monetizing anything that isn't nailed down, regardless of the quality of the end user experience. Time will tell how marketing-saturated the products will become as a result, but this announcement doesn't bode well.
Image courtesy Massive
Massive Inc. and Blizzard Entertainment Form Multi-Year Relationship [Massive]
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