James Lee 15:29 (BST)
04/06/2008

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IGA Worldwide is to adopt a TV-style advertising business plan for EA sports and racing games, according to Ed Bartlett, VP of publishing for Europe.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Bartlett talked about the recently announced deal between IGA Worldwide, EA and Sony to bring dynamic advertising to the PlayStation 3 and its implications to the in-game advertising industry, which he called a "leap forward in sophistication".

"We can do a similar thing to what TV advertising does," Bartlett said. "They're able to have upfront deals with their advertisers and show their roster of shows way in advance, which allows advertisers to plan budgets and know what's forthcoming.

"We can now do that for advertisers in-game as well, and that is a big step forward in terms of sophistication and validates the medium as a maturing medium."

Bartlett, who worked on game releases for publishers such as Sega, Virgin Interactive, BMG Interactive, Acclaim and Hasbro Interactive before moving into business development in 1999 with The Bitmap Brothers, was one of the first to demonstrate the creative and commercial value of in-game advertising.

In 2003, he founded Hive Partners, which secured interactive in-game placement deals with publishers such as Sega and Vivendi Universal Games before being acquired by IGA Worldwide in 2005.

"We're able to create verticals, so rather than an advertiser just buying into a racing game we can now sell them the racing vertical and they can buy in across 10 to 12 racing titles at a time. Which is a leap forward in sophistication," he added.