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NEW YORK CITY— APRIL 6, 2006 —
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, PSP™ (PlayStation®Portable) system, Xbox® video
game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Xbox 360™ video
game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube™,
Nintendo DS™ 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.
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