The unit was disproportionately hard-hit in Microsoft’s recent layoffs (28 percent of Massive’s staff was let go)—and we had heard that Microsoft was shopping Massive and was willing to sell it for just a fraction of the $200 to $400 million that it had paid for it three years ago. As for the in-game ad business overall, it has not met heady projections for its growth.

Last month, Massive GM JJ Richards went on the offensive, saying that there had been “wild speculation” and “inaccurate information” about his business, adding that Massive had seen “double-digit year-on-year revenue growth,” despite the recession.

Still, Richards acknowledges in a series of interviews he granted around this announcement that Massive still needs to win over advertisers. “This is about making it more and more like other media on the Web,” he tells Mediaweek. And, in an interview with Venturebeat, Richards says, “Until now, we didn’t know the correlation between in-game ads and consumer action. We needed to cross this bridge.”