UK software house On-Line Plc yesterday launched a web site banner ad exchange network, AdvertWizard.com. AdvertWizard will offer one-for-one banner exchanges, paid-for banner space, and revenue-sharing advertising. Alternative Investment Market-listed On-Line’s share price rose 4.6% on the news, settling at 336.5 pence. The site will go live January 4. On-Line has already approached advertising agencies to recruit the first tranche of advertisers, but the number of participants was not available yesterday.
On-Line is known for its eclectic mix of products. Ostensibly a games publishing company, with niche PC titles such The Rocky Horror Show under its belt, it has this year released graphical financial software, a sports site and a financial information site.
The plan for next year is to create an On-Line Sports brand, and release two PC games in January: Extreme Bike and Giant Killers, a soccer management simulator. These and future games run on its proprietary 3D stadium sports engine. The firm hopes to leverage this technology and the new brand to increase the usage of its internet-based multiplayer games, but the offline games themselves will not have networking options.
Although a spokesperson admitted the firm could be seen as weirdly divergent he said the disciplines involved in developing a 3D sports engine and a piece of software to represent stock prices at 3D graphics were tightly linked.
