I’ve setup a set of URL rewrite rules so links to gameadsblog.com will continue working. I’ve also mapped the Game Ads Blog RSS feed to syndicate any future blog posts on in-game advertising. If you’re reading this in your Game Ads Blog RSS, then I’ve done everything correctly. =)

I’ve accidentally broken any existing links or your RSS reader, please drop me a line.

The announcement did get some press - I saw it mentioned on Gamasutra & Kotaku - but I was expecting more in-depth coverage. What I found most interesting about the announcement was that the technology is solely focused on delivering dynamic in-game ads to PlayStation Home (at least for now).

Adding advertising to the Home environment is a no-brainier - Sony has been hinting at this possibility since the Home announcement @ GDC earlier this year. But constraining the new team by focusing solely on delivering Home may neglect opportunities to build a more attractive platform for PS3 publishers. To my knowledge, there is no in-game advertising technology serving dynamic ads to PlayStation 3 games.

Without building a large network of games (which provide a variety of content and experiences) they place a constraint on the reach and demographic of their customer base. You could make the analogy to the web by thinking of Home as a single web site. Selling ad opportunities on that site will be generally more difficult than selling a network of sites that provide customers with different experiences. A network size of one limits the potential set of advertisers interested in your product.

What was also interesting to me was the appointment of a former VP of Publishing for Adscape. I think this supports much of what I’ve blogged previously - that Adscape was acquired primarily for its technology (and possibly patent) portfolio - and not for its industry relationships.

On that topic - I’m interested in hearing more from Google about what’s going on with Adscape these days. http://www.adscapemedia.com/ no longer forwards to the Google acquisition FAQ and I haven’t heard any news since the July appearance at the Seattle Casual Connect games conference (link). Anyone know what’s going on over there?

Sources:

• Sony Creates In-Game Advertising Business Unit
• SCEA Creates In-Game Advertising Group

Today Massive released a study revealing that in-game advertising is surprisingly effective. It was conducted by Nielsen Entertainment and examined various ad campaigns that ran in games that use Massive. The study found:

• Average brand familiarity increased 64%
• Average brand rating increased 37%
• Average purchase consideration raised 41%
• Average ad recall increased 41%
• Average ad rating increased 69%

Before digging in further, here’s how the study was conducted. Over 600 North American gamers were recruited and divided into two groups - a control group and a test group. They both played the same game (Need for Speed, Carbon). The control group played the game but was NOT shown ads. The test group played the game (on Xbox 360 or PC) and was shown ads. Then the same questions were given to both groups. The questions asked gamers about the ads and brands included in the study. The difference between the two groups is what we considered “lift”. So when we say “brand familiarity increased x%” we mean that users in the test group were x% more familiar with the brand than users in the control group.

With that out of the way, here’s what some of our different types of advertisers saw:

• Automotive advertisers achieved a 69% increase in purchase consideration among likely car buyers.
• A consumer packaged goods (CPG) client saw a 71% increase among gamers who considered their snack food a “cool brand”. Among males 18-24 brand familiarity rose 63%.
• A fast-food restaurant ad saw its rating (those who liked it a lot vs. liked it a little) rise 39%.
• A technology tools client saw a 70% increase in brand rating.

I’m really glad our company is sharing data like this with the public and I’m glad the research was done by Nielsen - they’re getting increasingly involved with this market (see my recent post on their GamePlay metrics) and have a lot of experience conducting studies like this. While I would have liked to see the study conducted across more games, I’m impressed that there were so many participants - over 600 in total and over 300 in each group. This is a VERY large sample set for a study of this nature. I’m also excited that the study was conducted across both Xbox 360 and PC gamers.

Related: Massive In-Game Ad Effectiveness Study (Aug-8)

Console Usage Report Trend - June 2007

Console Usage Report Trend - May 2007

At first, these numbers were really surprising to me. I didn’t expect to see PS2 and Xbox so far ahead of the 360. But a quick check of console sales records at VG Chartz shows this is probably to be expected. PS2 has such a mammoth install base, that it’s only natural for that platform to have so many minutes.

But, let’s look at the other consoles as well. The most recent data on VG Chartz is from March, so it’s not ideal to compare the two, but it’s the best we can do for now. Here’s the American sales data from March next to the Nielsen data from May:

LTD percentages are calculated against only the five consoles listed.

The Xbox 360 and GameCube differences are interesting. Why is the comparatively small install base of Xbox 360 responsible for twice as many gaming minutes? Does Nielsen monitor too few GameCube households? Was there a surge of 360 sales in April/May? Are Xbox 360 games more engaging? Did GameCube owners transition to the Wii during April/May? These and other explanations are plausible… It’s impossible to know exactly why this is.

What I’d like to see are console #’s in the Nielsen report. This would help us understand if oddities like this are a result of a skewed console distribution.

Sources:

• “Nielsen GamePlay Metrics Launched by Nielsen…” - news release from Nielsen (Jul 26 2007).
• Worldwide Hardware Shipments as of Mar-2007 from VG Chartz.

In April, eMarketer released a 14 page report that examined video-game related advertising from a number of angles. Disclosure: I’ve read the report, but I’m going to avoid quoting from it directly (since it is a paid download). Overall they paint a rosy market picture. They cite positive comments last year from Joanne Bradford (Microsoft) and from Google on their acquisition of Adscape Media. They also claim the continued strength of the gaming market as a whole (and recently the increasing appeal to casual gamers) will also fuel advertising growth.

So let’s get to the numbers - their press release predicts that worldwide spending will rise from $692M today to $1,938M in 2011. They believe the US market contributes 50% of that figure.

Wowza! That’s a 22.9% CAGR (compound annual growth rate).

Parks Associates has more optimistic numbers. In June they released a 190 page report (I haven’t read all of this one =) that predicts market growth from $370M in US generated revenue in 2006 to $2,051M in US generated revenue in 2012.

Double wowza! That’s a 33% CAGR.

What I find most interesting here is that one of the authors of the report dismisses the idea of advertising in casual games. Speaking about the report to GamesIndustry.biz, Yuanzhe Cai says “I think the casual game genre is not very appopriate for in-game advertising.” Personally I disagree with him, so by his assessment $2B may be an underestimate.

Up next, PricewaterhouseCoopers. In their June “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook” report (which I haven’t seen), they expect a 9.1% CAGR for the games market overall, but much faster growth in in-game advertising. They expect US revenue growth from $80M in 2006 to $950M by 2011, which works out to a 51% CAGR. Triple wowza!

Finally, the Yankee Group. This month they released a report (which I haven’t seen) that predicts growth from $77M worldwide in 2006 to $971.3M in 2011. These are the most conservative numbers of the bunch, but I can only assume that’s due to the scope of the report. It’s titled “Advertising and Games: 2007 In-Game Advertising Forecast.” So I presume it doesn’t include estimates for advergaming (which others typically break out separately).

Even though these numbers seem much lower than the other reports, the growth rate is through the roof. $77M to $971.3M in 6 years represents a 52.6% CAGR. Wowzatacular!

By all accounts we have a bright future ahead of us.

Sources:

• “Video Game Advertising: Getting to the Next Level” - report by eMarketer (Apr 6 2007)
• “Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home: Game Advertising” - report by Parks Associates (Jun 29 2007)
• “Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2007-2001” - report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (Jun 23 2007)
• “Advertising and Games: 2007 In-Game Advertising Forecast” - report by Yankee Group (Jul 6 2007) (paid membership required)

Related:

• On the strength of the game industry: “This year, people will spend more money on games than they will on music.” - Peter Moore @ E3 2007 (skip to 14:38)
• Jun 7 - Got game - Economist.com
• Jun 18 - Beyond in-Game Ads: Nissan Takes Growing Market to Different Level - AdAge.com
• Jun 21 - Video Game Industry Growth Still Strong - HollywoodReporter.com on the report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
• Jun 22 - Analyst: Games Industry To Reach $49 Billion by 2001 - Gamasutra.com
• Jun 28 - Parks Associates: Game Advertising to Pass $2 Billion by 2012 - GameDaily.biz
• Jun 28 - Game advertising to exceed $2 billion by 2012 - report - GamesIndustry.biz
• Jun 29 - In-game ads can be “double-edged sword”, says analyst - GamesIndustry.biz
• Jun 29 - In-Game Advertising To Top $800 Million by 2012 - Slashdot
• Jul 7 - Analyst: In-Game Ads Grow To $971 Million By 2011 - Gamasutra.com

Few people live in Rapture today. But those that remain (and those brave enough to explore what remains) will see many advertisements would have been common during better times.

This and other examples of poster advertisements in Rapture can be found on The Cult of Rapture blog.

PS: If you haven’t seen the X06 trailer for Bioshock, I highly recommend it.

Marketing in Second Life doesn’t work… here is why!
From GigaOm, this is a really insightful post. Although the survey referenced is quite small (only 200 respondents), and I find the survey’s assertion a bit odd (“72% disappointed with the activities of companies in Second Life”) – the results are to be expected.

Wait… what? Results are to be expected?

Right. Wagner makes some great points – seeing an advertiser’s presence, or interacting with them is an extremely opt-in experience. In SL you have to go out of your way to interact with many advertiser presences. And because many advertisers choose to set up shop on virtual islands, there’s little incentive to pay them a visit. Users are more likely to check out where everyone else is hanging out, and go there to join the party. As a result, many advertiser presences have been abandoned, leaving users with the impression that the advertiser is uninterested. For a world that values shared experiences and personal interaction so highly, this approach is doomed to failure.

In-Game Immersion: IGA and Massive execs sound off on the ad strategy’s evolution
Wow that’s a long title. Justin Townsend (CEO IGA), and Alison Lange (VP Marketing, Massive) contribute a lot of information – especially if you’re just getting up to speed on our industry thinks. However, for me it wasn’t the background that was most interesting, it was the statistics referenced:

• 400 million eyeball hours are attributed to gaming, while only 143 million hours go towards watching television (unknown source).
• 12% of “the male demographic” is watching less TV and have dedicated 20% more of their time to playing video games (“A Nielsen report”).
• 40% of the gaming population is female, retirees and seniors are a growing demographic. And the late teen to 20-year-old age range is playing the same games as the 18-34 male demographic (Justin Townsend).

One request – if you’re going to spout off statistics like this, please give us some proper sources! Some of these claims are pretty amazing. Like - gaming accounts for 280% more eyeball time than TV?! Riiight. I’ll believe that when I can analyze the underlying study thank-you-very-much.

On a positive note – the gamer in me appreciates that everyone agrees in-game advertising can be most effective when it’s complimentary to the game experience and unobtrusive. In fact, Eric over at Marketing.fm posted about this in detail:

The Right Formula For In Game Advertising
According to Eric, the right formula for in-game advertising is:

(Information + Authenticity) + (Entertainment + Engagement) – Intrusiveness = Effectiveness

This is a really useful way to think about things and rings true to both the gamer and the professional in me. The example that Eric provides is also a good one. The Red Bull logo on the sides of creates isn’t disruptive to the gameplay experience – it dovetails with the game setting and seems like something you might naturally see piled up in a warehouse. The screenshot he uses isn’t from a Massive game, but certainly could be. The shot Eric uses is from an older game, Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death. It was integrated by Hive Partners who were later acquired by IGA.

Speaking about IGA, they recently announced (pinky to mouth):

One Billion Ad Impressions Per Week…

In a press release released 3/20, IGA announced that it expects to hit several milestones in March:

• 50 titles and 150+ countries in the IGA ad serving network.
• 200 million impressions generated per week by end of March.
• 10 millionth consumer expected to receive ad content by end of March.
• CPM’s are higher than broadcast network primetime – reinforce premium of in-game advertising medium.
• “This supports the general expectation that the market will grow by between 40 and 50 percent in 2007, with the latest market-size estimates for 2010 averaging $1.3 billion.” – Justin Townsend (CEO)

Wow! These are all great milestones! Congratulations.

Other reading:

• Massive poised to make large portion of “$700 Million Market” (GigaGamez.com)
• Massive Gains Momentum on In-Game Ads (TheStreet.com)
• Home is Where the Ads Are (GameDaily.com)

… we are so stoked to join Google — because these guys get it, and are committed to helping us continue our mission. [Source]

A FAQ has been posted, but doesn’t offer financial details.

But, there are two interesting items:

Q. Do you already have deals signed with game developers?

A. We have been in discussions with many in the game development community and hope to partner with both large and small game publishing companies.

… This seems to be a step backwards from June 6, 2006 when CEO Chris Gilbert claimed “though we have several deals signed, we can’t discuss them publicly until they are formally announced.” [Source] — Note how “deals signed” has turned into “discussions with”. I’m not going to keep holding my breath.

Also, this caught my eye:

Q. Given the dramatic growth of the gaming market in recent years, how much advertising market share does Google hope to gain from this acquisition, both immediately and over time?

A. We don’t release specific projections but we think there is great value in video game advertising. As more and more people spend time playing video games, we think we can create opportunities for advertisers to reach their target audiences while maintaining a high quality, engaging user experience. That said, we will test ways of successfully implementing this form of advertising and Infinity’s technology will be instrumental in those tests.

Q. Where does Google see in-game advertising going in the future, in terms of both revenue and the technology itself?

[exact same answer as above] …

… What is this “Infinity” technology? Is this an internal codename for Adscape? I don’t know of any announced Google technology or in-game advertiser named Infinity. Anybody know if this is more than just a simple mistake?

My previous posts about Google:

• Jan-11: Google to Do In-Game Ads?
• Jan-22: Rumor: Google to buy Adscape
• Feb-17: Confirmed: Google buys Adscape

• The console household universe has grown 18.5% since fourth quarter 2004, compared to a 1.6% growth in the total universe of television households.
• Two-thirds of all Men aged 18-34 have access to a video game console in their home.
• The universe of connected console households (households subscribing to a service to connect their console to the internet) has grown to more then 4.4 million households, even before the
  newest Playstation 3 and Wii consoles are considered.
• In the NTI (Nielsen Television Index) fourth quarter of 2006 (9/18/06-12/31/06), 93.8 million US Persons aged two and older used a video game console for at least one minute.
• In any given minute, approximately 1.6 million US Persons aged two and older are using a video game console.
• The heaviest console users accounted for 74.4% of all console usage and averaged 345 minutes (5 hours and 45 minutes) of usage per usage day during the fourth quarter of 2006.

These are certainly important findings, but what do they mean for in-game advertisers? Well, let’s look a bit deeper. On the demographic side, console gaming is a very powerful way to reach the elusive young male demographic. 66% of all Men 18-34 have access a console. 80% of all Men and Women 12-17 have access to a console. This bolsters earlier estimates of similarly high penetration levels.

But what about connected units? - Being online is a key requirement for many in-game advertisers… Well, this is growing as well. In Q4 2003, there were 2.5 million households subscribed to a service to connect their consoles to the internet (10.6% of those who owned a connectable system). Today 4.4 million households are connected (16% of those who own a connectable system). The important factoid here is that an increasing percentage of connectable systems are actually connecting. This is good news, users are seeing the benefits of connecting their consoles and as a result are expanding the reach of in-game ads.

Other interesting observations:

• When comparing when gamers play against when people watch TV, we find that TV watching tends to take place earlier in the evening. TV watching peaks around 9 PM, gaming peaks around 10 PM.
• TV watchers tune in en-masse during primetime hours (notice the pronounced spike in TV watchers on page 6 of the report). By contrast, gamers spread out their gaming, slowly ramping up over the afternoon. I can only presume that as the gaming experience improves, these users will not bother to switch over to TV as primetime hits.
• So who plays games? The same people that watch Nicktoons, Adult Swim, Toon Disney, Cartoon Network, Noggin, Nickelodeon, etc… Some surprising results: G4 trails VH1 Classic and Spike trails the Animal channel… Who would have thunk it?

Nielsen says this is the first paper in a series on the video game industry. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Reading:

• The State of the Console [pdf]

Viewpoint is a technology company that has traditionally provided Internet ad technology. They provide both standard and rich ad formats (from banners, to floating ads, expandable ads, interactive ads, even full screen and AIM based advertisements). They work with publishers to provide inventory, and work with advertisers who want to run campaigns. They also gather a lot of data on how users interact with ads and have a system they call “FUSE” for managing running campaigns and obtaining reports on user engagement and ad effectiveness.

However, the news here is that they are now offering in-game advertising as one of their offerings. What’s interesting to me are a few of the features they tout:

• … seamless integration of “swivel” ad placements into the game. Such placements enable dynamic ad rotation based on the priority of the ad unit, without disrupting the game play experience.
• … [the product] tracks a combination of metrics that define billable impressions even when the user is offline.
• … [the product] has a proprietary feature that allows for the delivery of ad units incorporated into “Ad Packs.” These Ad Packs can continually be exchanged for new Ad Packs so that the content is always timely and relevant.

The offline and “ad packs” support are the technologies that interest me the most. Advertising to offline users is a complicated problem. While a game is online it’s possible to download new ads and upload statistics about what ads have been seen (which is incredibly important because advertisers don’t like paying when their ads aren’t seen).

Offline games make gathering statistics impossible. Perhaps the “Ad Packs” technology allows the system to download a series of ads in advance (so when the user goes offline, they can be shown). But there’s no way to upload view statistics so long as the game remains offline. This presents many interesting challenges. For example, if you’re an advertiser, how much should you pay if your ads might have been seen by an offline gamer? How do you keep the ads relevant and up to date if the user has been offline for some time? What about interactive ads - would these even work offline?

Viewpoint is only just getting started in this space, so it may take some time before we know more about how their technology works. Clearly they’re a new player to keep an eye on.

More reading:

• Unicast Dynamic InGame Advertising Product

The author Stephen Totilo talks about a recent demo he saw of the upcoming PC game, “Hellgate: London“. Hellgate: London is a MMO style game that blends FPS and RPG characteristics. It takes place in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world. In the game, ads are integrated into places where you would expect them in real life:

Flagship CEO Bill Roper was running the demo and kept bringing his character to a grimy section of the London Underground subway system, which is nicknamed “the tube.” The walls had ads posted all over them, as they do in real life. I saw an iPod ad and one for Guinness…

The demo also included an ad for Children of Men, a movie that is also set in futuristic London.

This article is interesting to me because the author (and Flagship CEO) clearly understand how ads can enhance the gaming experience. They bring realism to the London Underground. They connect gamers with other subjects that might be interesting (like Children of Men) and other areas in the game that don’t have ads were noticeably “barren”. This is especially interesting because this is a game set in the future, not the present. Advertising in future worlds has been a hot topic ever since Battlefield 2142 announced IGA would provide in-game advertisements. But, if Hellgate: London does ship with in-game ads (the article points out the ads in the demo were just placeholders), it could change public perception.

Hellgate: London is expected to ship Summer 2007, there has been no announcement yet about in-game ads in the final version.

I wrote about this rumor last month. See the previous post: Rumor: Google to Buy Adscape.

In that post, I speculated that Google was really after the Adscape technology portfolio so that it could be applied to real-world advertising. Adscape still hasn’t confirmed any relationships with game publishers/developers and RED HERRING downplays the in-game angle, saying “an Adscape acquisition gives Google little beyond a few interesting patents.” The RED HERRING source only bolsters my earlier opinions.

But, let me play devil’s advocate for a few moments. What if Google isinterested in breaking into in-game advertising? Could they be successful?

In my opinion - not easily… Google excels at “automating” advertising markets. That is, they have tools that help advertisers perform research, purchase placement, target specific audiences, record click-through/conversion, invoice and share ad revenue with placement providers. Porting these tools and processes to support in-game advertising will be a major undertaking. Consider some of the following challenges:

• Non-standard media formats (ie: DXT1 vs DXT5 vs JPG vs PNG vs [insert custom developer format here]).
• Non-standard media sizes (ie: 256×256 vs 128×1024 vs. 200×600, vs. [insert custom texture format here]).
• Non-standard visual appearances - ads must look appropriate in dramatically different gaming environments (ie: compare the visual experience you expect in a brightly lit sports stadium to that of the dark stealthy world of Splinter Cell).
• Tools to support various gaming engines - (ie: Unreal vs. Doom 3 vs. Source vs Torque, etc…)
• Tools to support various gaming platforms - (ie: Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii, Windows, Mac, Flash, etc…)
• Tools to measure ad effectiveness for advertisers - How do you count “impressions”? How do you allow users to interact with advertisements?

I can’t comment on what is automated vs. supported vs. not-supported here at Massive, but I can tell you this stuff is hard! A company that only boasts a small patent portfolio and has no announced relationships with shipping titles probably hasn’t worked through all these issues yet. Which means Google has a lot of work ahead if it intends to serve in-game ads…

Related reading:

• RED HERRING: Google Agrees to Buy Adscape
• CNN: Google to buy in-game advertising firm
• TechMeme: Related stores from the blogosphere

- Fry

Why In-Game Ads?

There are a few reasons why Google would consider getting into in-game advertising. Perhaps Google feels the need to “keep pace” with Microsoft. This might be a response to Microsoft purchasing Massive, or it might be an effort that aligns with their foray into radio, and newspaper/print advertising. Or, perhaps there is some specific technology behind Adscape that Google wants to lock-up.

Keeping pace with Microsoft is no easy feat - companies either need to invest a tremendous amount of resources, or redefine the marketplace to carve Microsoft out (see Scoble vs. Winer on Microsoft Innovation). To my eyes, it appears that Google is trying the latter approach by pursuing non-WWW advertising options.

In 2006 we saw Google purchase a radio advertising company, explore newspaper advertising, and most recently file a patent on digital billboards. Here there is no direct competition from Microsoft and Google is going to learn a lot about targeting consumers off the web and with little user-context. There are tremendous rewards to be gained from digitizing real-world advertising (think better targeting, easier ad or campaign rotation, measurement, etc…). In-game advertising gives Google a platform to test & refine these technologies before going mainstream.

So, why Adscape?

Adscape boasts their unique “AverPlay” technology allows publishers to activate and deactivate “ad spots” remotely and dynamically. They also claim to have a proprietary “two-way connection between in-game ads and the real-world. Real World/Virtual World Gateway (RVG) enables two-way text, audio and video communication via SMS Text or eMail.” (source, click Technology).

As a gamer this sounds very intrusive, as a publisher this sounds like a mixed message. They claim “a priority of Adscape Media is to ensure the deployment of ads into games does not detract in any way from the game experience.” - yet their flagship technology is intended to provide interactive advertising. In my opinion, using SMS to interact with advertising sounds better suited for real-world billboards, than their virtual counterparts.

In fact, I can’t seem to find any Publishers that have signed with Adscape. Their site doesn’t mention any titles in their network. Their CEO Chris Gilbert claimed (7 months ago) “though we have several deals signed, we can’t discuss them publicly until they are formally announced.”

In the end, I think that’s what makes them attractive to Google - the technology itself, rather than the in-game opportunity. As Google tries to digitize real-world advertising by making it more interactive, they will need technologies such as SMS interaction. Adscape boasts 1 patent granted and 30 filed. In the end these technologies are what matter to Google, not the in-game market.

Related reading:

• Report: Google In-Game Advertising Acquisition Predicted (gamasutra.com)
• Google Behind Microsoft in Advertising in Video Games (searchmarketinggurus.com)
• Google may buy video game ad firm (money.cnn.com)
• Google Diversifies… Sort of: Ads in Games & Patenting Digital Billboards (computers.net)
• Google Seeks Patent For Digital Billboard Ads (wsj.com)
• Where the Advertising Buck is Going (Hint: Digital & Online) (barrons.com)

– Fry

As promised, here are my game industry predictions for 2007 … Google will show significant public interest in the gaming sector for the first time, including interest in acquisitions to bolster their Ad-sense business. The most likely target will be IGA Worldwide (to combat Microsoft’s acquisition of Massive). If unsuccessful, Google will seek to acquire one of the larger game publishers on the market to gain a foothold in the in-game advertising market. Likely targets include Electronic Arts (though it would be extremely expensive), Activision, or THQ. (Source)

I don’t think we’ll see Google get into the in-game advertising space this year, and I certainly don’t think they’ll become a publisher. It just doesn’t square with their mission and their strengths. Google’s mission is to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful. They fund this by selling advertising that’s contextually relevant to its surroundings. Ads are placed alongside a set of search results, next to an email, within a 3rd party webpage, or even in a newspaper. In each case Google uses the surrounding context to determine the interests of the viewer.

Within a videogame this doesn’t make much sense. Imagine if advertising in a game like Rainbow Six Vegas promoted various Las Vegas shows or a local Las Vegas restaurant. To make the ads relevant to the gamer, an entirely different approach needs to be taken. Ads can’t be targeted based on in-game surroundings, but rather to what the gamer is interested in outside of the game world. A more effective advertising campaign might promote a show that’s in the same city as the gamer, or perhaps a certain beverage or type of car that the gamer might find appealing.

As for becoming a publisher? Forget it. When you think of Google do you think fun? I sure don’t.

Frag on.

– Fry

Make sure to download the accompanying podcast. I was laughing my ass off:

10/20/06 - Advertising In The Future (MP3)

10/19/06 - Advertising In The Future - by Tycho (blog)

I’m not going to comment on the privacy concerns with in-game advertising just yet. Gamer privacy is a really important subject to many gamers (myself included!) and I want to dedicate at least a whole post to that subject alone.

Frag on. - Fry.

I created this blog so I had a place to comment on news and offer opinions on the world of in-game advertising. For some gamers, advertising in videogames is a polarizing subject. Some gamers feel that advertising pollutes the game experience while only benefiting the wallets of publishers. Others believe that advertising can add a sense of realism to games and offset some part of game development costs. For publishers and advertisers opinions are mixed as well.

I plan on using this blog to bring up and discuss some of these issues, as well as track the goings on in this industry (well, as best I can. =).

But before I get started, I’ll quickly introduce myself. I’ve been an avid PC gamer for a long time. My first game was probably Crossfire. Released way back in 1982, it was a cartridge that you would slap into the front of your IBM PC Jr (my first computer, an 8088 running at 4.7 Mhz). This must have been back in 1987, when I was 7 years old. And let me tell you, that game was fun! I’d spend hours basking in the green glow of my monochrome monitor shooting pixelated aliens.

Over the years, I grew up with PC gaming as a core part of my life. I have fond memories lugging my 486 DX2/66 to my friends house so we could setup a 10 Base 2 thinnet network for multiplayer Doom & Quake. I remember frequently visiting local BBS’s to download new WAD’s and talking strategy.

Fast forward to today, much of my game time has shifted to the Xbox. I’ve played hundreds of hours online and enjoy mostly first person shooters. You can find me on Xbox Live under the gamertag “Fry” (from Futurama). Professionally, I’m a Program Manager at Microsoft working in a group called Massive. As a program manager, I’m responsible for software design and work closely with developers & testers implementing new features and products. Massive is a company Microsoft acquired in early 2006. At Massive, I work on features that mostly impact the servers that provide the in-game advertisements. This is long after a game publisher has integrated our technology into their game. (Perhaps at some point I’ll talk a bit about this process).

That’s enough for now, as this blog evolves feel free to send me feedback or suggestions. You can reach me on Xbox Live, or send me an email at “fry(at)microsoft.com”.

Frag on.

- Jeff Carnahan