Massive Announces Blizzard, Activision Deals, New Boss

Massive Inc, a Microsoft-owned in-game ad firm, announced a multi-year partnership with Activision, as well as a deal with Blizzard Entertainment to provide advertising for the studio's official sites and Battle.net gaming service. Under the agreement, Massive will provide dynamic in-game ads for up to 18 Xbox 360 and PC titles, including Guitar Hero: World Tour, Quantum of Solace, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, AMAX Racing, and Tony Hawk. The two companies have worked together on numerous occasions in the past with titles like Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, running over 330 campaigns with more than 225 advertisers. With its multi-year Blizzard deal, Massive is now the World of Warcraft company's exclusive advertising service provider for its web sites and Battle.net online gaming service in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Korea, and Australia. To support the partnership, Massive is teaming with video game advertising representation company Intergi to manage web-based ads and reach Blizzard's audience of core gamers. Blizzard COO Paul Sams make sure to note that this deal does not include in-game advertising, commenting, "Massive understands and respects our stance against advertising that might detract from gameplay or offend our players." The advertising firm also announced that Microsoft's general manager of Advertiser and Publisher Solutions JJ Richards will expand his role to now head Massive. Previously, Richards served as Xbox Live's general manager. "I have been closely involved with Massive for the past couple of years and have seen the amazing growth firsthand," says Richards. "I'm stepping into this role at a great time for Microsoft and the advertising and gaming industry, and look forward to working with our publishers to create in- and around-game advertising opportunities for any advertiser's media plan."