Massive Incorporated, the creator of the world's first video game advertising network, today announced the availability of version 2.0 of its AdClient SDK to enable developers and publishers to quickly and easily integrate their games into Massive's advertising network. Titles in the Massive Network can contribute $1.00 to $2.00 in incremental profit per unit sold. Titles in the network enjoy the benefit of cross-promotional marketing support from some of the largest advertisers, as well as informative play data that gives developers useful insight into gamer experience with their game, in real time.

Massive’s network delivers advertiser messages seamlessly into premiere video games, played primarily by an 18-34 male audience. They appear in the game on billboards, posters, and other advertising elements that naturally fit the game environment. To date, 40 titles from eight publishers are committed to the Massive Network through 2005. Publishers and developers alike can enjoy revenues from ‘lost sales', including piracy, pass along, pre-owned sales market, rentals, as well as combat lower retail price pressures. Aside from the enormous revenue potential, in-game advertising actually enhances the realism of a game. For a developer, integrating Massive's SDK can improve the chances of publisher interest, if they can now factor in-game advertising into their business model. By the end of 2005 the network will deliver an advertising reach of four million, as large as any TV affiliate reach numbers today.

The Massive AdClient SDK integrates into video game engines at the development stage and handles all connections and communications with Massive's AdServer, allowing the game to dynamically download advertising into the game. The technology works across all platforms. Using texture replacement, the game engine blends the advertising into 2D or 3D game environments as part of the normal rendering and display process. With minimal memory impact, Massive's AdClient software library keeps track of ad views and reports aggregate view data back to the server. The technology provides accurate reporting to advertisers, while at the same time preserving the privacy and security of the players. All data is reported in an aggregated format-no individual information is gathered and Massive does not store cookies or other persistent information on individuals' computers.

Massive allows developers to work with their native media formats. The Massive AdServer will recognize each ad request by game title and deliver the format appropriate to that title. For the developer who wants to retain complete control over the execution environment, the Massive AdClient uses the game engine's own system resource routines including memory management and timing, and uploads and downloads can be completely scheduled by the game engine or left to the discretion of the library.

The AdClient, written in C/C++, easily integrates into any 2D or 3D game engine, right up through a Beta release. The entire process takes several days, followed by extensive QA testing for each and every level of the game. Massive provides development teams with an engineer who can integrate on their behalf, or assist them in any manner.

"Building a simple, elegant technology and maintaining a deep understanding of the game development process and priorities were two key tenants of our technology team from day one," said David Sturman, VP of Technology for Massive Incorporated. "We strive to seamlessly blend advertising into the game environment to add realism and variety, never to clash with the game aesthetics or hinder game performance."

Massive works with the pre-existing game design, working with the development team to place ad units in the game, to ensure that there is a complete fit with the environment and their creative vision.

"Ubisoft is impressed with how Massive worked with our development teams to help create appropriate, creative and meaningful advertising elements for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory," said Jay Cohen, vice president of publishing at Ubisoft. "Our development teams found that Massive's understanding of the development process and the gamer experience made the integration process run seamlessly."