Advertising has become big business in the video game world, with some market analysts predicting that in-game advertising could be worth up to £2 billion by 2010. However, it is uncertain to what extent gamers are influenced by ads in games.
Previously, advertising and games went together more through ‘advergaming’ where a game was designed around a product to promote it, but recently more and more advertisers are looking for placements inside the games themselves, and Microsoft are reported to be interested in spending £211 million on Massive, a New York games advertising company.
A new quarterly study, released by comScore Networks, looks at the attitudes of gamers towards in-game advertising and may help to show just why it is that advertisers are so keen on this medium.
The majority of gamers are aged 18 to 44, with 25% of these gamers playing for more than 16 hours per week on any one platform.
The largest group of gamer is the light user, representing over 75% of the total, with most gamers claiming to have played for about 9 years.
The typical gamer, according to the report, has a disposable income, with 20% of those gamers asked saying that they earned over $75,000 per year.
The report suggests that the more active the gamer, the more likely they are to be affected by in-game advertising, with 17% of heavy gamers, compared to 9% of light gamers, saying that they consider buying a product or service after seeing an in-game ad.
Eric Hunter, of comScore entertainment solutions, said of the heavy gamers: “This is a very important 25% of the market. They are influential and hard to reach otherwise. While a smaller segment, they cannot be overlooked in a smart media plan to this type of audience and demographic group.”
The comScore study also shows that gamers spend more time online than non-gamers, with 53 hours per week compared to the non-gamers’ 24 hours.
The games industry is currently estimated to be worth about £23 billion.
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