I'm sure many of you have read the recent news about Microsoft buying Massive Inc, a company at the forefront of in-gme advertising, for a reported $US400 million. What may be a surprised to you is that Massive Inc was started by an Australian, with the ingame advertising idea speaheaded with a fellow Aussie and Kiwi. SMH.com.au has an article on the founder, Mitch Davis, on his background in business, when and how he came up that whole game advertising idea, and what it took for publishers to warm up to it...
DAVIS founded Massive and with fellow Australian Nicholas Longano and New Zealander Claudia Batten decided he had to convince advertisers and the publishers of video games of the benefits of in-game advertising.He recalls how one game-publishing executive rejected Massive's idea out of hand.
"I'll never pimp out my game with advertising," he said.
They persisted and tried the same executive 12 months later.
"We've thought about it a lot and we want you to whore it out as much as you can," Davis recalls the executive saying.
Why the turnaround? Publishers were facing rising production costs and squeezed margins as retailers like Wal-Mart began to drive down the prices of video games.