High-Stakes Game Publishing Needs New Revenue

eMarketer: Global. As a follow-up to the story that Microsoft Corp. plans to acquire in-game advertising network Massive Inc., in a deal estimated to be valued at between $200 and $400 million, here's a quick overview of eMarketer's data on video gaming. In-game advertising is one way to produce more revenue in the high-stakes video game market.

The gaming industry is a lot like Hollywood, with millions in production costs riding on how a game is received by the public. The typical video game now costs $10 million to produce. The lion's share of games in the $30 billion dollar electronic gaming industry is sold in retail outlets.

But last year, the home console hardware and software sales were down and no major game captured the imagination of the gaming public. With the stakes so high, few companies--including Microsoft--can afford to fail.

In-game advertising is popular with marketers—and is expected to grow to $732 million by 2010. Some 27% of marketers plan to increase their spending on in-game ads this year, a survey in January by MarketingSherpa showed. Video Games: Where to Now? and Mobile Gaming. Games? Wkipedia Red Viking

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