Game Gallery Amusements

May 23, 2005
FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES
Real products are everywhere in games these days, creating a windfall for the video game industry as it capitalizes on a growing push by advertisers to reach big-spending males ages 18 to 34 who log long hours playing video games.
Until very recently, advertisers weren't rushing to place products in video games. They spent only $34 million in 2004 on in-game ads. But that amount is expected to explode to $562 million by 2009, according to the Yankee Group research firm.
Advertisers were wary in the past partially because there wasn't a way to measure the effectiveness of the ads. Now, Nielsen Entertainment, which measures TV ratings for advertisers, is testing a system to gauge the impact of in-game ads.
In conjunction with Activision and Jeep, Nielsen has embedded an electronic marker in each Jeep image included in "Tony Hawk's Underground 2." Each time a Jeep is used or appears on the game screen, the electronic tag sends a signal over the Internet to Nielsen, which tracks the hits.
Arcades dwindling
Gaming arcades are hard to come by these days, done in by a combination of powerful home consoles and the rising cost of games.
There were only 5,000 independent arcades nationwide last year, down from 23,000 in 1982, according to Play Meter, a Louisiana-based monthly trade magazine.
The cost of high-tech games has outpaced the return on investment for small operators.
Previously, an arcade operator could take about three months to recoup the price of a game that cost about $3,000.
Today, arcade patrons lose interest much faster, given the saturation of the home video-game market and its weekly onslaught of new titles. That forces arcade operators to try to recoup their investment in a game more quickly.