-By Mike Shields

Microsoft’s gaming subsidiary Massive Inc. has partnered with Web measurement firm comScore in an effort to bring more standardization to the still-evolving in-game advertising industry.

As part of the arrangement between the two companies, Massive says it will now be be able to provide advertisers with tangible data on the direct impact of their in-game ad campaigns. Specifically, Massive and comScore have jointly developed a research methodology that will help brands track visits to their Web sites or search queries that result from in game ad campaigns--by matching Massive’s ad serving data with data of comScore’s existing Internet audience panel.

The hope, according to Massive general manager JJ Richards, is to make advertisers more comfortable with in-game advertising by incorporating more familiar, and useful metrics. “This is about making it more and more like other media on the Web,” said Richards.

Massive has long been able to provide advertisers with top line campaign data, such as the raw number of impressions served. And to date Massive has conducted 85 custom case studies for brands to help then determine whether their ads are impact purchase intent and the like.

But basic performance data has been lacking, even as more brand employ messaging that includes a call to action, such an SMS short code. The lack of such data makes it hard for buyers to recommend the medium to clients at times, said Richards. “Now advertisers can actually compare our performance against others,” he said. “They can compare effective CPMs, audience demos, etc. We think when they do we’ll come out cheaper and better. This is one more step for the medium.”

Of course, comScore’s rival Nielsen is working on tracking the impact of in-game advertising as well. In the past the researcher has participated in a custom study with the troubled in-game ad firm IGA Worldwide. Plus, Nielsen, which is Mediaweek's parent company, has long made measuring media usage across multiple platforms, including TV, video games, the Web and mobile, a priority.

According to Mike Hurt, senior vp, comScore, the company is not yet able to blend campaign data from in-game campaigns with traditional media efforts—but that is something comScore is exploring down the road. “We do cross media research already,” he said. “But we haven’t really rolled this into that offering. Potentially...we think that’s the direction we’re moving.”