Massive Gains Momentum on In-Game Ads

If matching an ad to a game requires so much attention, how scalable is your network?

Part of why it takes more effort now is because it is a new medium. Advertisers are not familiar with it, so they don't know the right creative. Some of it is has to do with education around the medium. We are working on that, and we are highly efficient when working with advertisers and developing creatives for this medium.

Massive, because of its Microsoft affiliation, is closely associated with the Xbox platform and games for that platform. Will you extend the ad network to include other consoles?

We have had conversations with Sony(SNE Quote) and Nintendo(NTDOY Quote), and I would like to have them in our network this year. But this is a decision they have to make. Nintendo has never embraced advertising, so that's a long shot for anybody. But with Sony, we have had very positive discussions.

Could Google be at an advantage here because it isn't affiliated with any one console manufacturer?

I think platform manufacturers are going to look at what works best for their platform. Video-console game space is unique in that the console manufacturers make money on the people participating in their environment. So they are very concerned about overall quality of what goes into their environment.

They are not so willing to throw anything into it. Our technology is coming up on the third generation, and we have worked to build relationships with publishers.

How do you split the revenue from in-game ads with the publishers?

It depends on the deal. It's a healthy split, and I don't want to say anything more than that. But publishers have a potential to gain significantly from this. Dynamic in-game advertising can scale much larger compared with static advertising. A good title will occupy a user from 25 to 50 hours, and static placements will be limited. But dynamic is not limited theoretically, so there's plenty of opportunity.