Advertising within videogames will be heading toward the $2 billion mark by the end of the decade, according to Massive Inc. CEO Mitch Davis, who predicted that in-game ad spend would reach as high as $1.8 billion in the U.S. by 2010, accounting for some 3 percent of total media spending, reports MediaWeek. Davis was delivering the keynote at the second annual Advertising in Games conference in New York.
His remarks came a year after Massive launched what it said was the first dynamic in-game advertising network - that is, allowing ads to be swapped in and out of videogames played online.
In-game advertising is now "less about experimenting and more about building it into business," he said. Major film and entertainment studios and brands such as Coca-Cola, Subway, Honda, and Gillette are now customers, according to Davis. Massive has signed deals with 38 publishers, runs ads in 60 game titles and has served ads in over 65 million game sessions since launch, hesaid.
