iga posts

In an interesting move for a company that just a few months ago was laying off staff members and shutting down development studios, Electronic Arts has announced that it will take over the sales of the ads that are placed inside their game titles. Previously EA contracted with third party ad companies like IGA and Microsoft owned Massive to handle their in-game ads.

Gamasutra reports that EA held an event for advertisers and media buyers to pitch their games and how they might incorporate ads in their titles. Games such as the Need For Speed series have uses in-game billboards and other devices to showcase real world ads.

id Software's recent launch of their free-to-play FPS Quake Live is supported, at least at first, completely via in-game ads supplied by IGA Worldwide. Now Venture Beat is reporting that IGA could be in a bit of a financial fix. Its chairman Justin Townsend admits that the company is trying to find some more funding to keep it going but is also exploring other options including selling IGA off.

Founded in 2004 IGA has already raised over $46 million from various sources but so far it has not generated a profit. The article has some opinions from some unnamed sources who doubt that IGA will be able to find a new source of revenue in time. It's unknown if such actions will have an impact on Quake Live.