EA sees $4-5 mln ad rev from game

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Officer Lawrence Probst said on Wednesday the company expects $4 million to $5 million in in-game advertising revenues from its new "Need for Speed Carbon" game this quarter.

Probst, who heads the world's largest video game maker, told the Reuters Media Summit in New York that advertising revenues from the newest game in EA's popular car racing franchise would be split between dynamic and static advertisements.

New Internet technology allows advertisers to put so-called dynamic ads on such things as billboards, soda vending machines and other objects that appear in video games -- and gives them the flexibility to change those ads over time. Static ads are coded into the game software and can't be changed.

"Need for Speed Carbon" was released earlier this month on multiple players, including Sony Corp.'s (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) new PlayStation 3, Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Xbox 360 and Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) new Wii new console.

Video game makers and their investors have been closely watching dynamic, or in-game, advertising as a potentially powerful new source of revenue, as more players connect their consoles to the Internet via video game services like Microsoft's Xbox Live.

(For more coverage of the Reuters Media Summit, please see our MediaFile blog at blogs.reuters.com/mediafile)