• Washington Post, Friday, March 3, 2006 1 PM

Marketers have been putting their ads and their products into the content of video games for some time, but what was once a novelty and a marketing afterthought is becoming big business. Nielsen Entertainment has begin tracking the industry and says this year it will become a $75 million market in the United States and will grow to $1 billion by 2010. It's easy to see why game makers and advertisers are good business partners. Marketers want to reach young men who aren't spending as much time watching television but who love to play video games. Game publishers, meanwhile, are regularly looking for ways to offset their ever-growing software-development costs without making their products more expensive. In-game marketing gets a mixed response from gamers, but many seem to accept it or even like it if it keeps in line with advertising they would expect to see in the real world. Such marketing can walk a fine line, though: when a Splinter Cell game featured superspy Sam Fisher rappelling off a billboard promoting a specific deodorant, it was kind of cool. But when other scenes gratuitously lingered on what brand of gum he chewed, some fans complained.

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