Gamasutra reports on an unconfirmed article in the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft is in talks with Massiave about a possible acquisition, and that a deal may be immanent. The deal would reportedly be worth between $200 and $400 million, and the potential impact to existing Massive relationships is unknown. There have been reports in the past few weeks suggesting that in-game advertising has the potential to become a market worth billions, and just recently Massive Incorporated penned a deal to include advertising placements in MLB 2K6, and has existing agreements with Sony Entertainment Online. Certainly the in-game ad market will be churning if this deal comes to pass. Microsoft may also be looking to bolster its current ad-placement technology as it attempts to ratchet up the competition against Google.

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