PlayNet launches to connect gaming with online behaviour
PlayNet, a gaming measurement company, has launched with the aim of connecting user behaviour from video games with online social content, livestreaming and e-commerce.
The startup will help brands and their agencies identify which interactive experiences drive online purchases, rather than merely impressions. This is done by giving users the option to opt in to tracking across digital environments, including Roblox, Minecraft, Unity, and mobile and social platforms.
For opted-in users, PlayNet will create a unified ID to link gaming activity to other online engagement.
A spokesperson for the company claims PlayNet is “built for privacy and brand safety, with age verification and user opt-in”, and that it will help brands apply the same rigour to gaming measurement as CTV or search.
To comply with age verification standards, opted-in users will be required to either submit a form of ID or link to an account that itself requires 18+ age verification.
PlayNet was founded by Simone Berry and is headquartered in New York City. Before entering the gaming industry, Berry worked in design and merchandising for several firms, eventually becoming a consultant in metaverse strategy and Web 3.0 branding.
From May 2022 to February 2025, she was the founder and CEO of POC Lab, a female-led casual gaming studio.
“Gaming is one of the clearest examples of a much bigger measurement gap across interactive entertainment,” Berry told The Media Leader. “It is one of the most powerful channels for storytelling, participation, fandom and community, but the measurement still lags behind the way modern marketing actually works.
“Brands can generate engagement inside games and interactive experiences, yet they still struggle to understand who is returning, what is building affinity, and how that participation leads to outcomes like revenue, loyalty, visits and demand.”
Berry described firsthand the impact of a lack of unified gaming measurement on clients, including L’Oréal and Walmart. “We could see engagement, but we could not clearly connect that behaviour to business outcomes across the full customer journey,” she said. “The existing tools were built for static ads and linear funnels, not for people who play, leave, return, share and convert later across games, social, web and commerce.”
While PlayNet’s early integrations are gaming-centred, Berry believes the value of the business lies in its ability to “extend beyond any single platform or channel” by helping brands gain a “unified view of the full customer journey.”
She added: “When brands can finally prove that participation drives revenue, loyalty, and demand, investment increases because these channels can be treated as measurable growth channels, not experimental ones.”
Ahead of its official launch, the startup inked a partnership with Publicis Groupe’s gaming division, Play.
“Interactive entertainment has been one of the hardest channels to measure, not because the engagement isn’t there, but because the data stops at the platform,” Publicis Play SEA managing partner Jamie Lewin commented.
He added that PlayNet “gives us visibility into what happens after” someone interacts with branded in-game content, helping show “the cross-channel journey that justifies the investment” in gaming.
PlayNet is betting that linking such cross-channel measurement will provide value to agency holding companies, many of which maintain specialised divisions for gaming, sports, entertainment and fashion that run their own activations with siloed measurement. Even within gaming, measurement efforts typically remain disconnected by walled gardens.
In addition, PlayNet is working with gaming studios, such as Dubit, to help them prove interactive environments can lead to positive business impacts for sponsors.
Stephanie Whitley, Dubit’s COO, explained that studios are increasingly being asked to prove to clients that “interactive experiences drive real results, not just engagement”.
Previously, measurement of branded content in gaming environments was generally limited to the number of players that interacted with the game, with modelling efforts used to gauge downstream impacts.
Whitley believes PlayNet will help the studio “show the full journey, from in-game engagement to what happens after players leave.”