In-Game Billboards Go Interactive

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This makes it extremely appealing to advertisers and certainly allows the players to benefit by allowing us to offset high development costs to bring them ongoing new content."

"There's the basic metrics we already have," Longano mentioned. "We can check out the amount of interaction on an aggregated scale, so advertisers can see what % are interacting, and that's what advertisers want to see. It can be compared to the Internet or anywhere there's interactive medium."

What will come of it?

Chances are, this is only the tip of the iceberg with interactive in-game ads. Likely, all sorts of different corporations are looking to get in on this new sort of dynamic advertising currently utilized in Anarchy Online. At the same time, publishers and developers will always be looking for new possibilities with these interactive billboards, and beyond to new ad technology.

"This was only revealed in the last several days, but I understand from Massive Incorporated that there is a high level of interest from the same range of top advertisers as we have for the traditional dynamic ads (beverage companies, movies, software companies, food chains, cell phone providers etc)," said Perkins. "Both the dynamic ads and the 'video' ads have been received very well by advertisers and it is a challenge to keep up with the increasing demand. This has been a wonderful win-win situation for all sides, but most importantly for the players."

"We're constantly working with Massive to improve what we can offer the players and advertisers but I can't reveal what's being investigated at this time other than to say we were the first to integrate the dynamic ads into an MMO, the first to introduce video ads and the first to go with interactive ads in this manner," she continued. "We are lucky to have a crew that is willing to be innovative and we're always working on new technologies and new ways to implement those technologies. This has been a very good synergy where both companies are eager to push boundaries. We will continue to expand what we can offer to bring visual and audio sensory experiences into Anarchy Online in ways that were not possible previously. I'm sorry I can't be more specific there right now, but more information will be forthcoming in the near future."

"We're always looking to evolve the way ads are used," said Longano. "We want things to be done contextually to a game and we're always looking for new ways to do things [with] creativity. In the future, you're going to see more types of interactions. When we have lead times of 12 to 18 months, you'll start to see ads written into the game and work with the gameplay experience. Again, it all has to make sense, lend itself to it contextually."

"As we've integrated titles today into our network, we're looking into different things. At the end of the day, it's up to the developers and publishers. Eventually, advertisers are actually tailoring and actually creating the ads for game. Hopefully the dollars will go back to the developers so they can continue to make good games," he concluded.

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