Exciting things are happening in the world of electronic gaming, especially when looking at it from an advertising point of view.
First off, the days of the acne-ridden teen video gamer are over. A recent study showed that the average age of video gamers has increased, almost as if it aged with the original gamers. In the 80s it was considered absurd to have a family, career and still get home at night to battle it out in Balloon Fight. Today the crop of all gamers is between 26 and 42 years old.
Secondly, families are starting to see video gaming as fun, quality family time. In the UK, consultancy Deloitte found that a quarter of all households own a Nintendo Wii and almost another quarter (24%) intended to purchase one within the next year. Games such as Monopoly, recently brought to consoles by Electronic Arts, Buzz, Wii Sports and Guitar Hero all shifted video gaming from its era of 1 player Super Mario to full-on living room arcade.
Thirdly, with so many new gamers it becomes inevitable that advertising will start creeping in – and it already has. AdAge recently ran an article on how companies and brands will be involved with Sims 3, Maxis’ third installment of the highly successful life simulation game. Utilising permanent internet access brands will be able to buy advertising a la Google Adwords which will be displayed within the game.
The future of gaming is definitely bright. South African music and movie retailer Musica recently stated in the Sunday Times newspaper that they will start focusing more on gaming as the way forward. They reported a decline in sales in both CD and DVD categories, while game and console sales were on the increase.
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