-By Mike Shields, Mediaweek

NEW YORK In-game advertising vendor Massive Inc. extended its partnership with Electronic Arts to deliver ads within several of its more popular sports games through 2010.

The multi-year deal features some of the more recognizable sports titles published by EA, including Madden NFL, Need for Speed and Tiger Woods PGA Tour. The Microsoft-owned company will continue to deliver dynamic or "live" ad placements within these titles, allowing advertisers to frequently swap out messages and initiate media buys on the fly. The company also gets an opportunity to place ads within any new titles EA produces during the duration of the deal.

Massive's partnership with EA is currently limited to games played on the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles (Microsoft owns Xbox).

According to Jay Sampson, Massive's North American sales director, forging a long-term ad relationship with a major publisher like EA is important to help further legitimize the in-game ad industry. "Marketers can have assurance that our programs are consistent and persistent," he said. "They can better plan to buy this medium -- it's the notion of predictable programming."

Plus, the deal allows Massive to work more closely with game developers earlier in the process, hopefully yielding even better ad opportunities. "It's all part of the industry's maturation," said Sampson.