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Webzen hooks up with Massive

By Curt Feldman, GameSpotPosted Jun 27, 2006 10:58 am PT

Korea-based game operator/publisher will place ads in upcoming titles, Huxley and APB.

The lure of incremental bucks from advertisers interested in reaching gamers has jumped the ocean to Asia. One of Korea's biggest game operators, Webzen, said it would add the Massive SDK to two of its upcoming games, the David Jones-designed APB (Jones was part of the original Grand Theft Auto team at DMA Design) and Huxley, an upcoming massively multiplayer first-person shooter built using the Unreal 3 engine.

Both games will get worldwide releases, according to Webzen, and will tailor ads for each market the games are released in. Huxley is due to retail in 2007, while APB is due the following year.

Massive, one of the first companies to develop technology that enables ads to stream into in-game environments, was acquired in early May by Microsoft for an undisclosed sum (estimated by The Wall Street Journal to be in the $200 to $400 million range). Microsoft intends to integrate the Massive technology into its Xbox Live and MSN Games suite of games.

Massive says more than 60 advertisers are in its network, including Coca-Cola, NBC, Honda, and Panasonic. The company has working relationships with a range of publishers, including NCsoft, Atari, Konami, Codemasters, Vivendi Games, 2K Sports, Spark Unlimited, Acclaim, Sony Online Entertainment, Ubisoft, THQ, and Eidos.

50 Comments

  • PieStalker

    Posted Mar 19, 2007 8:40 pm PT

    woot, bring on teh Ads if it means i dont have to pay a monthly fee hell ill watch all the ads and enjoy them then ill find someone who looks like a guy in the ad and kill them compleating the cycle of ads.....

    but really if it means free online play i'll live with it

  • Zanduar

    Posted Mar 2, 2007 9:49 pm PT

    If you've ever played Planetside they have massive Ads in the game. They are basically small billboards in the place you spawn, towers and a few other places, and there are alot of them in your starting area (empire sancs).

    These ads are annoying, especially the ones with noise and video. There was one for the air force that was a loud screeching jet . Another that was for Tokyo Drift, was quiet loud and long.

    These ads may bring money to the company, but it doesn't bring money to you, lower your subscription cost or bring any promise of players using the ads for their own group.

    Worst of all, they do impact your FPS.

  • living_dead140

    Posted Feb 7, 2007 2:11 pm PT

    Yo all I can say is that APB willl be the sickest game released.

  • Darkstar_Sinada

    Posted Jan 7, 2007 12:12 pm PT

    I'd rather pay the full $50 and $15 a month then deal with that crap...bleh.

  • Nate2583

    Posted Dec 31, 2006 12:12 am PT

    60 advertisers seems like there will be a decent amount of ads in Huxley..just hopefully placed well, designed well, and not too overwhelming then im fine with it.

  • Box29

    Posted Aug 27, 2006 11:05 pm PT

    Not sure about you jhonny, but I know my family pays for cable. Broadcast TV is free because the way it is done, there is no way for it to not be free like with radio.

  • jhonnytactic

    Posted Aug 2, 2006 4:52 am PT

    Prolly in the end adds are gonna make the advertisers get more say in the release date(release before its ready), game layout (cause they'll want their adds in a certain place), loading time ("hey check out our new birth control sandwich before your game starts") ect..

    But with that said, if games successfully integrate adds more and more advertisers want to pay to have their products pushed on consumers which could lead to free games cause a company would want everybody to see it. TV is free cause of adds.

    People who are saying that it might lower for this game are kidding themselves because its just that not big YET. It could led to a good thing but starting off its gonna suck my joy stick.

  • nomadski69

    Posted Jul 30, 2006 6:48 pm PT

    Anyone else think when ur trying to immerse yourself in an alien gameworld the worst thing that can draw u out of said environment is a giant Starbucks on the corner?

    Dont sell your soul to the corporate devil. Unless it makes the game cheaper, in which case sell away.

  • ArmyOfArmagetto

    Posted Jul 21, 2006 4:54 am PT

    Anarchy Online had Real Life ads on TV screens and billboards, they are really not such a bother.

    BTW Anarchy Online Classic is free for a year, now your question is: Is it related to the ingame RL adds or not?

  • vmfstorm1

    Posted Jun 29, 2006 10:59 pm PT

    actually some good points have been raised...with the greater income from companies buying ad space there may be more updates and a lower monthly cost....both kinda good...

  • vmfstorm1

    Posted Jun 29, 2006 10:57 pm PT

    i would like to see some real-time game news (i.e. whatever group just dominated the PvP battleground) when u click on a billboard, like something out of Eve maybe. Other than that, i am worried about the lag that streaming advertisements will create, after all, there will be quite a few.

  • Silversbane

    Posted Jun 28, 2006 6:14 pm PT

    I would like to see interactive ads. Such as a streamline rather then the same old thing over again. For example: I walk in the city of Huxley and theres a big screen on a building that is running news about the events in Huxley and between the news I get advertisements for Coca Cola or other products that are in game such as new weapons. It would defin make for a great way to place the ads in the game. And they should make the ads change over time so it didn't show the same damn commerical for years. That would just be a bad idea. Hey and I wouldn't mind seeing movie trailers for upcomming movies. It might look a bit dorky since it will be real. But it would also catch my attention and make me pay more attention to it. = P

  • comboz

    Posted Jun 28, 2006 4:13 pm PT

    Maybe they will lower the monthly fee because of the cash the ads bring in. Hopefully in Huxley they make the adds blend in...like adding decay effects or something on them.

  • denawayne

    Posted Jun 28, 2006 12:31 pm PT

    meh

  • Merl57

    Posted Jun 28, 2006 11:25 am PT

    Crap. Well I was thinking about buying Huxley for my first MMORPG or my first monthly fee title, but sucking money from the game itself, monthly fees, and annoying adds? why don't I just give them my account number, honestly theres nothing like RUINING a game which throws reality in it. I don't want to shop for car insurance I want to kill other players online. You watch so many adds during T.V its so annoying that I play games a lot more then I used to but now theres almost no way to escape. Adds are at the bathroom now too, STOP IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!

  • BigDaveyDogz

    Posted Jun 28, 2006 8:43 am PT

    to be dead honest...i got an email saying there was an update on huxley and i got excited...then i read its about in-game advertising....boo this!

    gimme some hands on previews or gameplay movies or somethin!!!!

  • Orlandun

    Posted Jun 28, 2006 8:32 am PT

    Well as long as they are only in the city in places that dont make it seem rediculous i wouldn't mind this at all really....as long as it reduces the monthly fee or box price

  • soulknight63133

    Posted Jun 28, 2006 3:02 am PT

    Good point K1LLSWITCH, unfortunately for TV and radio especially alot of revenue comes from big corp. running ads. Looks like gaming is their next target.

  • rynmls

    Posted Jun 28, 2006 1:03 am PT

    ok let the games trailer release..

  • d3mon27

    Posted Jun 27, 2006 10:54 pm PT

    meh...... that is all

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