Games Industry Wire

IGN says: “Developer id Software is reportedly ready to roll with Quake Live, a free-to play web browser shooter based in the popular Quake universe, now with ad-supported content. Ad-driven games are hardly new, Battlefield Heroes is attempting to champion it and so is Gearbox Software; as a matter of fact, most Asian countries are thriving upon that model because piracy is often rampant in those territories. id is teaming up with in-game advertising company IGA Worldwide. Game Daily was able to speak with Steve Tucker, vice president of brand integration at IGA, where he expounded upon the advertising aspects …read more

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id Software has just unveiled its next major game called Rage at QuakeCon and announced that it is building a second development team. This group has already begun by working on an experimental browser-based version of the id’s popular Quake 3 Arena called Quake Zero, which will be funded by advertising. Who would’ve thought that id would be one of the first devs to tap into the advergaming market, it will be interesting to see if this takes off as a viable model.
“We’re eventually going to grow this to the point where we’ll have a second team of 20 to …read more

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We first talked about Google’s rumored purchase of Adscape back in early January. The sale has been finalized and it appears Google is rapidly developing the new branch.
According to a patent abstract Google is looking to target their ads to the player. Here’s the abstract:
Information about a person’s interests and gaming behavior may be determined by monitoring their online gaming activities (and perhaps making inferences from such activities). Such information may be used to improve ad targeting. For example, such information may used to target …read more

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Google, an industry leader in everything advertising, has been expanding its offering in recent months including the long awaited debut of Google’s Audio Ads program. Now it appears Google will be venturing into game advertising.
In-game advertising involves advertising being directly inserted into web-connection games.  This is the next logical step for Google and for the web-based  gaming industry since this is largely a smaller based company operation right now. To get a head start in the new media Google is looking at acquiring AdScape Media which is an already established company in the industry.
This series of moves follows Microsoft’s purchase …read more

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I swear, every quarter Sony’s marketing morons are botching another idea. Where does Sony find them?
Here’s the stupid, fake blog that Sony’s marketing minions have set up.

Read more after the jump.

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Ruiter blogs on Why Companies Choose To Enter Second Life, and I think he hits the nail on the head, especially here:
- Participating makes your company look like it is on top of things and new developments.
- Trying to use the media attention around SL to get media attention for the company (you will need a good story though)
- Just plainly seeking out what the hell this SL is all about (learning by doing / experimenting). I am sure a lot of companies are actually in SL incognito!
- Finally, in terms of marketing budgets this is all peanuts: for UDS …read more

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Jay over at the Zero Boss is partnering with Lucas Arts to giveaway Thrillville, an amusement park sim for the PS2, PSP and XBox. If you have a Nintendo or PC, sorry… But he says to submit anyway and he’ll think of something to give you.
More on the game and the contest:
Thrillville is rated E for Everybody, making it suitable for kids of all ages. To win a copy for yourself or your family *, simply leave a comment describing either your favorite theme park, or a notable experience – comic or tragic – that you’ve had at …read more

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GamesPolitics.com, a blog on, you guessed it, politics as it relates to the gaming industry, was purchased by the Entertainment Consumers Association.
In fact, ECA announced two important developments today:
First being that the ECA has acquired GamePolitics, a critically acclaimed clearinghouse for politically-oriented news and opinions about video games, and secondly being a partnership with NCsoft on the PlaySmart Information Program, a first of its kind public service program geared toward educating consumers on Internet safety and protocol.
The ECA is an advocacy group for gamers. If you are interested in joining the ECA, the price is $19.99 per …read more

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I feel like I am just copy/paste blogging today LOL
Here’s the lineup from THQ for their Wii Launch. Add this to yesterday’s Ubisoft launch lineup for the Wii and you have a very strong launch lineup (not even looking at what Nintendo and others are launching).
About the Avatar: The Last Airbender Video Game
Based on one of Nickelodeon’s hottest TV shows, the Avatar: The Last Airbender video game brings to life an adventure of intrigue, deceit and revelation. Players can play as all four main characters from the show: Aang, Katara, Haru and Sokka, as they mimic their martial arts movements …read more

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According to the Popcap survey, (conducted by Information Solutions Group) over 70% of the audience is female, and 89% are over 30. This correlates with the Neilson finding which found that 64% of all online gamers are female. Not only that but when asked to list their favourite leisure pastimes they listed casual games above both watching television and listening to music.
(from an advergaming company’s press release)
Remember, women game primarily in puzzlers, online flash games and mobile games… Consoles are still dominated by men (sigh).

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