Summary
Take Two, because of its sports licenses, is one of the few publishers poised to generate significant advertising revenue.
As development costs break the 50 million dollar mark for next gen consoles, the ability to get advertisers involved will be paramount in offsetting the increase in pricing, promoting existing IP, and satisfying the needs of investors
Also, Take Two, has former EA ad sales guru, Julie Shumacher making deals for them.
Analysis
As someone heavily involved in advertising in games, Take Two, shouldn't be looked at as a shrinking opportunity. Rather, it's ability to generate large dollar deals with advertisers should make their existing franchises more valuable in the current market.
Sports games are the current sweet spot for advertisers. Brands already affiliated with the leagues have a lower barrier of entry into a space that, for advertisers, still lacks significant ROI, standardization, or real ingenuity in dealmaking. I wouldn't be suprised if the sports franchises alone in 2007 add a 2-3$ per unit profit per title.
Julie Shumacher, formerly of EA, now with Double Fusion, who sells advertising in Take Two's sports franchises is an industry veteran like myself. I would have great confidence in her ability to sell against those titles.
It's the big budget games like CounterStrike, Battlefield 2142, Mortal Kombat, and others that exist in non-advertiser friendly environments that will have the harder task of finding advertisers. And while Intel is a major ad supporter of Battlefield from EA, advertisers in general are hard pressed to integrate in IP that doesn't exist in their other marketing platforms.
