The PC Gaming Alliance has released the stats for the 2007 PC Gaming market, and last year the PC sector hit $10.7 Billion in revenue. In-game ads contributed to the $800 million in advertising revenue which was factored into the total yearly revenue.

Via Gamasutra

Mochi Media announced yesterday a partnership with Cyworld, an online social network, to offer a new gaming arcade to its users and as a secondary service- new advertising revenue streams. Mochi Media is one of the largest providers of game advertising solutions for flash games.

From the press release:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — 08/20/08 — Mochi Media, the world’s largest online games advertising network, announced today a partnership with Cyworld US, an online social network, to offer a new gaming arcade to its users while creating new advertising revenue streams. Cyworld, through its rich and engagement-focused environment, enables users to connect with friends, share photos, and participate in discussions, or talk with members about popular culture and topics of interest to the community. Mochi Media’s library of Flash games will help extend this social entertainment and communications focus by allowing members to compete against top scores of friends, as well as comment on game play. The service will also allow Cyworld to capture a share of the advertising revenue generated from all games played on the site.

Through Mochi Media’s MochiAds for Publishers platform, Cyworld receives a feed of constantly updated, well-integrated Flash gaming content through the new gaming section on its site. By incorporating Cyworld’s social graph with Mochi Media’s games, Cyworld members have a unique social gaming experience where they can compete with friends and other Cyworld members and share their thoughts about the games, players and game play. Mochi Media’s unobtrusive pre-game ads are displayed as the game is loading, and bring new revenue opportunities to Cyworld while allowing it to provide a superior, distraction-free user experience.

Cyworld’s focus on engaging and entertaining its audience has been bolstered by the introduction of gaming content and is a prominent feature in its recent site redesign. The games portion of the Cyworld site was launched in mid-July, and already ranks second among the top areas of its site, in terms of engagement as measured by time on site. Cyworld will look to build on its members’ appetite for online gaming through the integration of Mochi Media’s broad array of games and features allowing users to challenge their friends and further extend the social aspects of gaming.

Cyworld and MochiAds: A New Model for User-Sensitive Advertising

Despite the enormous popularity of social networking around the globe, advertising across this medium has struggled to keep pace. At the heart of this struggle is that consumers are seeking a clutter- and distraction-free social networking experience to engage with friends, and existing advertising models do not map well to these requirements. Recognizing this disconnect and building on its focus on user experience, Cyworld has ripped out all banner ads on the site and turned to Mochi Media because its pre- and inter-level game advertisements are integrated into natural breaks in game play, and thus less disruptive to the user experience.

“Cyworld offers a world-class online experience — its tremendous popularity across Korea and other countries is a testament to its focus on a great user experience,” said Jameson Hsu, Mochi Media CEO. “MochiAds for Publishers offers Cyworld a consistent stream of highly engaging gaming content that will give Cyworld users an increased number of options for entertainment and will provide the company with new revenue possibilities.”

“We are very excited about this partnership with Mochi Media. Their consistently updated, highly entertaining gaming content will aid us in engaging and retaining our members,” said Darian Patchin, Cyworld VP of product marketing. “Mochi Media provides a deep level of gaming integration, enabling our members to compete and engage with one another. We are constantly looking to increase the quality of our members’ experience and providing a social way to interact with Web games is a perfect fit. Mochi Media helps solve a revenue problem that many social networks are facing. Since we don’t allow banner advertising on the site and are the only major social network without it, we are very selective about our revenue generation partners.”

Mochi Media is an online gaming network that provides tools for game developers, publishers and advertisers. The company provides independent developers of Web games with analytics, distribution, and monetization tools — while supplying publishers with a wide array of games they can select to publish to their sites and offering advertisers a way to reach the one-in-three Internet users who play online games.

WPP Group has acquired a reported 12.82% stake in a Chinese in-game agency “InGame Ad Interactive Technology Limited“

From the WPP Group press release:

WPP acquires minority stake in InGame Ad Interactive in China

21 August, 2008

WPP announces that it has acquired a minority stake of 12.82% of the issued share capital of IGA Limited, the Cayman Island parent company of InGame Ad Interactive Technology Limited in China.

WPP holds 55% of Series A Preferred Stock of IGA Limited. Revolution Ventures holds the remaining 45% of the Series A Preferred Stock, with founder shareholders holding the remaining common stock in the company.

InGame Ad, based in Shanghai, is a leading independent dynamic in-game advertising network in China providing consumer reach through a portfolio of premium quality online games, including mobile games.

This investment continues WPP’s strategy of developing its networks in important markets and sectors and demonstrates its commitment to developing its business in China.

Nestlé is going to be running an in-game advertising campaign for its Nescafé products. The campaign will be featured in Perfect World, a fantasy-based MMORPG. Nestlé’s efforts are focussed on bringing more attention to their brand with youth in the Phillipines.� Perfect World is developed by Beijing Perfect World Co.,Ltd. and published by Cubinet Interactive Sdn. Bhd

The in-game campaign is being executed simultaneously with other efforts on the social networking site Friendster.

More details via BrandRepublic

Quattro Wireless, a North American mobile ad network, has partnered with mobile in-game advertising company Greystripe, to provide online gaming and in-game advertising across select publisher sites developed and hosted by Quattro Wireless.

It looks like the first destination for Greystripe’s mobile gaming products will be CollegeHumor.com which� relies on Quattro for publishing, hosting and managing advertising sales on its site.

Press Release

Double Fusion announced some changes in its management today with some added responsibilities for one employee and also two new hires.

Julie Shumaker, Double Fusion’s current Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, will now be overseeing Double Fusion’s newly formed Core Games Group as its GM. Shumaker will now be overseeing publisher partnerships across Double Fusion’s core video game segment.

Glen Sussman, formerly CFO and COO of GameTrust, has joined the Double Fusion team as Chief Financial Officer; and Joshua Larson, former Vice President of Games at CNET Networks, has been brought on as the Vice President of Business Development.

On a side note: Yikes on some of the press release content. Not sure how this one slipped past the proofreading stations at Business Wire, Double Fusion, or Forty Seven Communications but-

“Sussman is coming on as CEO of Double Fusion just as the company embarks upon a double-digit revenue growth and multi-year expansion.”

You have to feel bad for Jonathan Epstein, CEO of Double Fusion with all his nice comments on the new hires.

“Julie, Josh and Glen all have unique and diverse backgrounds, but traits they all share are a love of games and a history of strong results and success in their prior roles,” says Jonathan Epstein, Double Fusion’s President and CEO. “Double Fusion prides itself on its world class technology, but it is our stellar team that brings the experience and dedication that has propelled Double Fusion to its status as the leading independent in the sector.”

Little does he know that he is actually being replaced… Just be glad that they are not a public company, that might have made for some interesting stock changes for the day…

Ah yes, the always enjoyable battle for the “hearts and minds” of gamers continues. This time around the efforts are on the behalf of IGA Worldwide.

European publisher relations VP and co-founder Ed Bartlett was in attendance at the Edinburgh International Festival this past week, and made some very pointed remarks about IGA stating that “We are not spyware” and that� “We’re not evil”. He also said that “I used to be a game developer, so I’m not a big evil corporate guy”.

Will gamers listen? We certainly hope so, and IGA probably does too.

Via Gamasutra.

At the Edinburgh Interactive Festival this week former Sony CEO Chris Deering revealed a troubling statistic that only 3 out of 10 games published ever recoup the production costs associated with launching them This adds yet more importance to finding additional revenue streams and promotional methods for games in today’s market. Deering was quoted by Michael French of Developmag.com stating that “Something is going to have to be there to make up the difference”

Chris happens to be a board member of IGA Worldwide, which would most likely lead to the logical suggestion of in-game advertising as a way to burgeon the revenue deficits faced by today’s game publishers.

IGA Worldwide is going to be delivering the in-game advertising for a free first person shooter titled Rising Eagle. The game, developed by Invasion Interactive, is available to PC users via a free download on the Rising Eagle website. To date the game has been downloaded 103,385 times, which isn’t too much of a surprise considering mankind’s love of “free”. Ed Bartlett, VP Publisher Relations – Europe of IGA Worldwide calls this model of ad supported games the “freemium” model. As the amount of money allocated towards in-game advertising increases we can expect to see an increase in the number of “freemium” games.

Rising Eagle has the majority of its combat based in urban environments, as seen in this shot from Paris below. This no doubt will allow for some great placement for brands within the game.

For more details check out the press release here.

1. NCAA Football 09 (Xbox 360)
2. Wii Sports (Wii)
3. NCAA Football 09 (PS3)
4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
5. Wii Play (Wii)
6. NCAA Football 09 (PS2)
7. Guitar Hero: On Tour (Nintendo DS)
8. Wii Fit (Wii)
9. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
10. Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox360)

Check out the full sales stats at VGChartz.com