Microsoft Closing Massive Inc

There was a real buzz about in-game advertising a few years ago and Massive Inc were at the forefront of bringing ads to gamers inside their favourites games. It seemed like logical progression for the videogame advertising market. Despite what looked like a rosy future, Microsoft who acquired Massive in 2006 for between an estimated  200 million and $400 million, are in the process of closing down Massive according to a report today on Adweek.
Microsoft has been looking to offload Massive as the market has also not proved as buoyant as expected due to royalties being shared with publishers and the publisher’s preference to sell direct into Xbox Live which is outside the Massive remit. According to the article, EA also recently moved all their advertising away from Massive and it’s handling their advertising in-house which has been a huge loss to the company.
Microsoft and Massive have declined to comment on their plans for Massive.
Thanks Adweek