Realtime With Microsoft and EA Games

Real as in streaming advertisements piped dynamically to games like EA's forthcoming Madden 2008, NASCAR 2008, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008, NHL Hockey 2008, and Skate. An extension of Microsoft's game ad company Massive Inc. (purchased by the Redmond software leviathan last year for $200 million), the new EA/Microsoft deal will allow advertisers to feed changeable ads live to virtual billboards or other promotional in-game constructs. Goodbye static, built-in, quickly outmoded huckstering, hello voguish virtual real estate with advertising space for sale by the hour, day, week, etc.
How's it work? Massive's technology tracks the number of seconds gamers spend in view of an ad, then charges advertisers in 10 second exposure increments. 60 seconds @ $10/10 sec interval would net Microsoft $60, 30 seconds $30, and so on. Even if that rate's a dime or a penny, imagine the revenue windfalls with hundreds of thousands or even millions of gamers basking in the floodlit luminescence of "Say hello to iPhone" and "Always Coca-Cola."
2006's dynamic in-game ad spending? $26.1 million. 2007's projected: $100 million, and by 2010? Up to $645 million according to estimates from Yankee Group (as reported by AP via the Washington Post).