Reebok "in game deal" for Football Superstars

Don't you just love this industry.

In a time when there is doom and gloom and the cost of everything is rising just go shopping VIRTUALLY.

Reebok and IGA WW and Sports MMO Football Superstars have teamed up in the latest game sponsorship deal.

The free-to-download online game will be used by Reebok as a platform to launch its Ambassador Programme. Successful entrants to the programme will win a supply of Reebok boots and kit with in game currency, apparel for avatars, as well as an interview Thierry Henry.

THIS is a perfect example of contextual advertising well done guys

Operators are "stifling" mobile industry - Dynamo // News // GamesIndustry.biz

This is a great point by Stuart Ried and it will only be a matter of time before the pressure gets too much for operators. If they took a step backward and reviewed their approach they could probably make better revenues from mobile gaming.

As browsing functionality improves (iphone)and flash lite takes hold alongside other technologies in game adverts for mobile phones will continue to grow especially if the networks don't block direct URL access. This allows a player to log on via mobile to a game service direct the ads are then served to the user and the mobile operator does not get a cut. The operator makes their money from the bandwidth provided. Thats the way it should be.

1) Mobile gaming should look at the try and buy model (I here the first hit the US this year)
2) Free games will grow in popularity as they did online.
3) Paid content options need be more flexible.
4) Connected content will become more popular with user want the online experience to continue on the handset.
5) There is a big opportunity here will they see it?

Operators are "stifling" mobile industry - Dynamo // News // GamesIndustry.biz: "Operators are 'stifling' mobile industry - Dynamo
Mobile phone operators' control over their games decks is 'stifling' the mobile games industry, according to BAFTA award-winning Dynamo Games' technical director Stuart Reid.

Reid - whose company is behind the Championship Manager series of titles on the mobile platform - was hopeful that the N-Gage platform would prove successful as a way of getting around reliance on deck placement.

One of the stifling factors at the moment for the mobile industry is that the operators are controlling the decks.

With a better community aspect, it allows the best games to stand out, and take the number one slot - so the quicker that happens, the better for the industry.

He is excited about the iPhone, particularly the new options comparing it to the Nintendo DS in terms of power." (it is actually more powerfull)

In game Advertsing

Ok the key things are as follows

1 Google will be able to send in game video adverts, and will be trying to claim a good chunk of the market
2 Google may use characters to deliver ads, could this could backfire?
3 Adverts work well when done contextually, they fit in with game play
4 Google launches Lively virtual world
5 Bushnell points towards big growth potential for in game adverts
6 In game adverts different from adverts that appear in the pre-load before a game or in banners
7 Google releases Android open source OS for mobile phones

Google ready to offer in-game ads for web games? | Casual games | News by Casualgaming.biz: "Google's is finally going to commit to in-game advertising, with a target that will include online web-based PC games, according to a report on VentureBeat.

'Sources close to the matter said that the company has developed an in-game advertising technology that allows it to insert video ads into games,' says the report, adding that a demo shows in-game characters themselves presenting ads to players with 'words from our sponsor'-like intros."

Gamasutra - Nielsen: 82% React Positively To Contextual In-Game Ads: "Nielsen: 82% React Positively To Contextual In-Game Ads

Nielsen: 82% React Positively To Contextual In-Game Ads Up to 82% of consumers feel games are just as enjoyable with integrated dynamic game ads as without, according to a research study conducted by Nelsen BASES and Nelsen Games on behalf of in-game advertising network IGA Worldwide. The study, “Consumers' Experience with In-Game Content & Brand Impact of In-Game Advertising Study,” found that in-game ads produce “a measured lift” in overall consumer awareness and opinion of the products advertised."

Bushnell sees inefficiencies in game advertising // News // GamesIndustry.biz: "Bushnell sees inefficiencies in game advertising

Atari founder and Pong creator Nolan Bushnell has noted the inefficiencies in advertising support for the videogames industry.

Speaking at Wedbush Morgan Securities' annual Management Access Conference, Bushnell said that there was a huge disparity between the current situation and what it should be.

'If you really look at the advertising support of broadcast media, it's over USD 100 billion,' Bushnell said.

'People in the US watch about 27-28 hours of television per week and they play about 7-8 hours of games per week - which, on a parity basis, says that there should be somewhere between USD 25-30 billion of advertising support available for the game business.

'Clearly, it's less than a billion dollars now.'"