Blizzard deal with in-game ad firm does not mean ads for WoW

by Shawn Schuster Dec 4th 2008 at 1:00PM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, Economy, MMO industry

Despite a recent multi-year partnership between Massive Inc and Activision/Blizzard, the in-game advertising firm will not be adding in-game advertising to our favorite games. "Massive understands and respects our stance against advertising that might detract from gameplay or offend our players," stated Blizzard COO Paul Sams.

As this story has circulated throughout the last two days, many players got worried that they would soon see Coke ads in Northrend or a Ford banner on Guitar Hero, but that's just not the case. Massive Inc's focus with Activision and Blizzard will mostly be web-based ads and the Battle.net service, as they team up with video game advertising representation company Intergi to manage these ads. So as the websites will get more annoying, our in-game space is safe... for now.

Tags: activision, advertising, blizzard, in-game-advertising, massive-inc, microsoft, paul-sams, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

LaughingTarget said on 1:39PM 12-04-2008

Why would they worry? It's not like WoW is littered with thousands of pop culture references.

tenfoldhate said on 1:48PM 12-04-2008

Stitches...now brought to you by the Coca-Cola corporation.

KingJames said on 2:57PM 12-04-2008

I can see it now, undead can purchase Axe body spray. Tauren will wear Angus beef bracers. Humans will drive around in Toyota Trucks. It's already in the works lol.

MrGutts said on 3:26PM 12-04-2008

Speed potions brought to you by Mountain Dew (PEPSICO)!

Coldbrand said on 7:44PM 12-04-2008

Uh, you do see that sort of shit in Guitar Hero post-Activision, constantly.

Tokenwhitemale said on 12:16AM 12-05-2008

If Blizzard expects us to put up with advertising, then they should reduce or eliminate the monthly fees us subscriber's pay.

Falcom said on 5:17PM 12-10-2008

I'd support in-game ads to some extent(like on loading screens) if the monthly fee was eliminated. But as long as i'm paying a monthly service fee, i shouldnt have to pay additional money by letting them advertise to me.