EA's In-House Sales Shot Grazes Microsoft

Electronic Arts’ decision last week to take its in-game advertising business in house represented a body blow to third-party vendors such as Microsoft’s Massive Inc. and IGA Worldwide. But the companies are pressing forward.

“Clearly we liked our partnership with EA,” said Jay Sampson, senior director, emerging media at Microsoft. “But on an impressions basis, EA represented just a percentage of our overall inventory—probably close to a quarter of our titles.”

Sampson said that Massive continues to maintain partnerships with other top game publishers like Activision, allowing it to sell marquee titles like Guitar Hero.

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