Take-Two signs in-game ad deal

Take-Two Interactive and Double Fusion today announced that they have reached an agreement to have the in-game ad firm handle the advertising duties for "up to nine" 2K and 2K Sports titles releasing in 2007 and 2008.

Under the agreement, Double Fusion will handle all of the static advertising (ads that are in the game when it ships and never change) for the North American and European releases of the games. Double Fusion will also handle Take-Two's dynamic in-game advertising (ads that are regularly updated and refreshed in online games after they have shipped) for PCs and "certain console platforms except for the Xbox and Xbox 360." However, parts of the agreement surrounding dynamic ads are conditional on those other console platforms even supporting dynamic ads.

"With respect to dynamic ads, we can only serve dynamic ads as platforms authorize that," Double Fusion CEO and president Jonathan Epstein told GameSpot. "And right now, Sony and Nintendo, who have been very busy launching platforms, are still formulating their policies in that regard. So our arrangement is contingent on those platforms authorizing in-game advertising in the first place, and then authorizing Double Fusion as a vendor. We're hopeful that during the time of the deal...we'll see such authorizations and approvals."

Epstein said Microsoft has communicated its intention to make the Xbox 360 platform open to third-party advertising firms. (The software giant recently acquired the in-game ad network Massive, which inked a deal with 2K Sports for dynamic ads in MLB 2K6.) Epstein said he expects Microsoft to open up the Xbox platforms to third-party ad vendors in about a year. He added that Double Fusion didn't pursue the rights to dynamically serve ads for Microsoft's consoles so as not to limit Take-Two from that potential revenue stream.