Tag Archives: #videogames

Hype Can Be a Bad Thing

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Via the MIT AdLab, Forbes is carrying their own article about advertising in online gaming. From the article:

Lost in the talk this week of the new videogames from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo is that these consoles will provide an ideal platform for advertisers.

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Realism is key to many games, and real life is a place where ads and commercial products crop up all the time.

I wonder if that demographic they keep citing and which by now some of us probably have memorized (“18 to 34 year old males with disposable incomes who are increasingly less likely to watch TV”) puts off some corporations – especially those who are neither in the electronics industry nor aware of the particular advantages available to them in this new arena. More importantly, when are they going to start asking where the women are? It’s not like there are no females in games or virtual worlds. I mean, one look at the crap on TV and they can’t believe women are sitting there watching that stuff.

Billions and Billions…

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… of dollars.

From this Yahoo/AP press release:

Game publishers have to recognize that there are millions, if not billions, of dollars in advertising money coming their way in the next few years,” said Justin Townsend, chief executive of IGA Partners Europe, an agency that places in-game ads for clients.

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Until very recently, advertisers weren’t rushing to place products in video games. They spent only $34 million in 2004 on in-game ads – a far cry from the billions spent on television advertising.

But that amount is expected to explode to $562 million by 2009, according to The Yankee Group research firm. Including “advergames” – games built solely to promote a product – game advertising will approach $1 billion by the end of the decade, the firm predicts.

which is essentially the same thing written in today’s Wired online article. Maybe it’s not “Want a Coke With That Railgun?”. Maybe instead it’s “You Need a Coke to Power That Railgun”.

Both stories via Blue’s News.

Spore Creation Just Another Procedure

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Spore screenshot

Last night I caught a blurb over on Blue’s News that the website for Will Wright’s Spore is now up and running (and kinda cute). Above is one of the cool screenshots from the game… and there’s another one on a previous entry of mine here.

Today Wired online has an interview with the Creator himself in which he even mentions Eames’ Powers of Ten. From the interview:

User-created content has two extraordinary benefits. No. 1 is that when somebody makes a piece of content, they are so much more emotionally attached to it. It doesn’t even matter if it’s good or bad. If they made it, it’s really cool, and they’re totally interested in what happens to it. No. 2, players love trading and sharing and spreading this stuff around and having it come to them, and building up their worlds.

This may be the future of online content. Did he say “parametrically”?

Advertising and Videogame Spectators

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Simply put: advertisers are already planning to target their ads at videogame tournament spectators. From Yahoo News/Reuters:

Peter Moore, the Microsoft vice president in charge of advertising for the Xbox business, described a scenario where a virtual race hosted by a corporate sponsor, with thousands of gamers competing for a grand prize while their buddies and competitors watch online.

Read all about it here.

Pop Culture Consciousness

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BusinessWeek online has another excellent article. This time on the emerging popularity of videogame music. For old school Quake fans, this will come as no surprise – Nine Inch Nails was doing game music years ago. And although more popular bands like Front Line Assembly get more attention for their game efforts, within gaming circles musicians like Kevin Riepl and Bill Brown have the attention of their fans as well.

What’s more interesting to me is how this relates to other game and virtual world content. There are popular figures within the gaming community unknown to the general public – texture artists, skinners, modelers, aso – who may some day garner the same kind of attention we know reserve for traditional artisans.

(edit – turns out Wired is carrying a similar article today)