Ben-DutkaDon't like ads in your games? Well, too bad. The industry has simply gotten too big for many businesses to ignore, and advertising revenue is a major deal. To cement that point, Take-Two Interactive and in-game advertising company Double Fusion have announced today that they've entered into an agreement to fill 2K and 2K Sports titles with even more ads.
"Our titles offer a range of advertising and marketing possibilities for leading and niche brands, so working with a company that can effectively sell both dynamic and integrated opportunities was key to our decision," said Steve Glickstein, 2K's Vice President of Sales and Licensing. "Double Fusion's sales team immediately provides 2K with the advertising agency connections on Madison Avenue and the scale necessary to tap into the opportunities inherent in many of our games."
At this point, Double Fusion intends to integrate advertising with the gameplay and storylines of certain 2K games, so product placement goes center-stage. Some future titles might even include "dynamic advertising" that can be updated from time to time. In other words, if you're wandering down the street in the new GTA and you see billboards for Pepsi and McDonalds, don't be surprised.
"The relationship with 2K represents an alignment of long term visions between our two organizations on both the current state and future direction of the in-game advertising industry," said Jonathan Epstein, President and CEO of Double Fusion. "2K offers the hottest slate of sports and action games with extremely attractive, advertising friendly environments, delivering key demographics with the flexibility, pervasiveness, and accountability that only in-game advertising can provide."