Major League Baseball Advanced Media, MLBPA, 2K Sports and Massive Incorporated to Deliver Dynamic Advertising into Highly Anticipated Sports Title – Major League Baseball® 2K6
Major League Baseball Players Association, MLB Advanced Media and 2K Sports Join Forces with Massive Video Game Network
NEW YORK CITY - Massive Incorporated, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), MLB Advanced Media and 2K Sports, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: TTWO), today announced a worldwide agreement to deliver dynamic advertising into Major League Baseball® 2K6. As part of the agreement, Massive is an exclusive partner with MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM) for the delivery of dynamic advertising in certain MLBAM-licensed video games, and with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA).
As part of this agreement, 2K Sports, the exclusive third-party publisher of Major League Baseball video games, is now a key member of the Massive Network. 2K Sports also publishes highly acclaimed and popular sports video game franchises in basketball, hockey, college basketball, tennis and snowboarding.
Advertising has long played a prominent role in sports video game titles; however, until now, this advertising took the form of hard-coded, static product placement. Massive's Network and technology allow MLB Advanced Media and 2K Sports titles to leverage dynamic advertising for ever-fresh brand messaging in their games, mirroring the rapidly changing and expanding advertising opportunities in the live action sports industry.
"Sports games are ideal vehicles for in-game advertising, as the advertising adds an element of realism to the experience for gamers," said Steve Glickstein, Vice President of Licensing for 2K Sports. "Our sports properties attract top-tier, high profile advertisers and I'm confident Major League Baseball 2K6 will be even more appealing as the Massive Network allows seamless delivery of customized, real-time advertising campaigns."
"We selected Massive to open this new revenue stream because of their knowledge of the advertising, sponsorship and video game industries," said John Olshan of the MLBPA. "This combination makes them the ideal partner to work through the complicated issues arising from baseball's multiple rights holders and conflicting sponsors."
"We are thrilled to work with MLBAM, MLBPA and 2K Sports to leverage and fully extend the advertising potential of this great franchise," said Mitch Davis, CEO of Massive. "Major League Baseball has already brought significant innovation to advertising in live sports; together, we will now do the same for their video game properties."
About MLB Advanced Media
Established in June 2000 following a unanimous vote by the 30 Major League Baseball club owners to centralize all of Baseball's Internet operations, MLB Advanced Media LP (MLBAM) is the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball. MLBAM manages the official league site, www.mlb.com, and each of the 30 individual Club sites to create the most comprehensive Major League Baseball resource on the Internet. MLB.com offers fans the most complete baseball information on the Web, including up-to-date statistics, game summaries, extensive historical information, and exclusive features about Major League Baseball events and programs, including online ticket sales, baseball merchandise, authenticated memorabilia and collectibles, fantasy games, live and archived radio broadcasts of every game, live and archived video webcasts of entire games, pitch-by-pitch enactment of games, and hosted post-game video highlight shows. MLB.com offers more live events on the Internet than any other website in the world.
About Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an integrated global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games and accessories for the PC, PlayStation® game console, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, PSPTM (PlayStation®Portable) system, Xbox® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Xbox 360TM video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCubeTM, Nintendo DSTM and Game Boy® Advance. The Company publishes and develops products through its wholly owned labels Rockstar Games, 2K Games, 2K Sports and Global Star Software; and distributes products in North America through its Jack of All Games subsidiary. Take-Two also manufactures and markets video game accessories in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region through its Joytech subsidiary. The Company maintains sales and marketing offices in Cincinnati, New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Vienna, Milan, Sydney, Breda (Netherlands), Auckland, Shanghai and Tokyo. Take-Two's common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at www.take2games.com.
All trademarks and copyrights contained herein are the property of their respective holders.
About Major League Baseball Players Association
The Major League Baseball Players Association (www.MLBPLAYERS.com) is the collective bargaining representative for all professional baseball players of the thirty Major League Baseball teams and serves as the exclusive group licensing agent for commercial and licensing activities involving active Major League baseball players. On behalf of its members, it operates the Players Choice licensing program and Players Choice Awards, which benefit the needy through the Major League Baseball Players Trust, a charitable foundation established and run entirely by Major League baseball players.
About Massive Incorporated
Massive Incorporated is the creator of the world's leading network for dynamic video game advertising. With 37 game publishers and more than 100 titles, the Massive Network offers advertisers the ability to reach an aggregated gaming audience in real-time across multiple platforms. Over 60 blue-chip advertisers have run campaigns across the Massive Network throughout North America and Europe. Publishers in the Massive Network generate the highest yield per title from dynamic in-game advertising, enabling them to leverage the value of their content while preserving and enhancing the game experience. Massive's technology allows for all forms of downloadable media and advertising content to be contextually integrated into the game environment, including image, audio, video and game object formats. www.massiveincorporated.com