massive posts

While all of us are waiting to play Trackmania 2, developer Nadeo is still supporting the earlier titles in the racing game series. This week the developer announced some changes that it is making for people who play the free Trackmania Nations Forever in online multiplayer.

Simply put, Nadeo is now restricting direct access for online play of the game to the servers that the developer itself hosts. This is due to the previously announced shut down of Nadeo's in-game ad agency for the game Massive. However, folks who want to sign on to user-run third party multiplayer servers can still do so by adding those servers to the player's favorites list but that list is limited to just three servers per account. According to Nadeo's statement, "The goal of this operation is to better welcome the free players in a place that encourage them more to buy the paying game (TrackMania United Forever) while preserving the capacity for the most enthusiastic players to access to all servers."

[Via Blue's News]

Download the Trackmania Nations Forever game from Big Download

It was yet another busy new day here at Big Download, where every week is We Love PC Games Week :)

• Microsoft will officially shut down its Massive in-game ad service by the end of the year.
• Blizzard reveals its next gen MMO at BlizzCon 2010 (Ok, not really but it's funny).
• Steam has a new Worms Reloaded patch update available for download.
• Dark Horse Comics has release an original Mass Effect comic book online at the USA Today web site.
• The third and final behind-the-scenes video for the upcoming Back to the Future game is now on YouTube.

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.

The economy is not doing very well and the consensus is that the advertising market is taking a big hit on all sides, including Internet ads. But is in-game advertising also taking a similar hit? Not according to Massive, the in-game ad division of Microsoft.

In a blog posting on Microsoft's Advertising web site its general manager JJ Richards states, "For our 2009 fiscal year, Massive achieved an impressive double-digit year-on-year revenue growth in the face of one of the worst economic crises of the last century." He adds that they have already exceeded their target for the first quarter of their current fiscal year by 100 percent just one month into that new year. In addition, Massive says its in-game ads now reach "40 million Xbox and PC gamers in 31 countries."

About six months ago, it seemed Massive was having issues as Microsoft laid off a quarter of its staff members. Since then it scored deals with a number of publishers to offer in-game ads for their PC games.and renewed their ageement with Blizzard to provide ads for their Battle.net web site.

The in-game advertising industry isn't quite as big as it was a year ago, thanks mostly to most companies cutting back on ads in this current economic recession. However Microsoft's in-game ad company Massive has apparently signed or renewed deals with a number of game companies for in-game ads for the PC and other platforms.

Gamasutra reports that Electronic Arts, Activision and THQ have all signed with Massive to provide in-game ads for their upcoming games for the PC. It's also apparently renewed their agreement with Blizzard to provide ads for their Battle.net service (which was first signed last December). The Massive division was hit a few months ago with layoffs ordered by their parent company Microsoft. Those layoffs reportedly totaled 28 percent of Massive's team members.

A second round of layoffs hit Microsoft on Tuesday and it looks like this latest cutback has taken out the majority of workers at the company's Massive in-game advertising division. According to VentureBeat.com the amount of people cut from the division was as much as 75 percent although exact figures are not known. Update: VentureBeat has now updated their story with Microsoft informing them that the layoff numbers are closer to 28 percent of Massive.

Microsoft bought Massive in 2006 for between $200 million and $400 million at a time when many thought in-game ads were a sure thing for revenue growth. Since then some of the excitement has worn off, partly because the entire ad industry is suffering due to the recession. This new round of layoffs at Microsoft total around 3,000 people. Last January Microsoft cut 1,400 people off their job list and caused their ACES Studio (home of the Microsoft Flight Simulator series) to close shop.

So when you have reps from Activision come out to a major upfront ad event for the in-game company Massive and announce your 2009 game line-up, including the title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and you have more than one media outlet attending and reporting on said event, wouldn't you say that's pretty official?

We would but Activision apparently does not. So just to play the "fair and balanced" card, the publisher has officially told Videogamer.com that those media reports from both Newsweek and MTV Multiplayer were "speculative as far as we're concerned". Uh-huh.

The phrasing of their official statement doesn't call the announcements false, just "speculative". We think that Activision wasn't prepared for news reporters coming into the Massive upfront event and were a little looser in revealing their future plans than they would have been had they known a bunch of media types had infiltrated. In any case, it would be a massive shock if Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was not in the works, was not being developed by Infinity Ward and wasn't coming out in fall 2009.

Normally we don't mention news stories about in-game ad deals because, well, they are usually boring. That's not the case today as Microsoft-owned in-game ad company Massive just announced a major deal with Blizzard that will give them control of ads running on all of Blizzard's web sites, including their popular Battle.net site.

No you won't be seeing in-game ads for World of Warcraft, Diablo III or Starcraft II but this new deal does give Massive a major account since all of Blizzard's sites are among the busiest web sites in the world. In a separate deal, Massive will also be handing in-game ad support for Blizzard's other half, Activision, for 18 of their current and upcoming games. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.