MCVUK is reporting that they’ve done some sums and worked out that the games industry has spent £139,000,000 on marketing campaigns for Xmas.
That’s an awful lot of money but who’s spending it? Well, a little bit of quoting for the click-shy:
MCV understands that biggest contributors to the mammoth spend are platform holders, with two companies each spending in excess of £20 million since October. The highlights from both firms include gargantuan TV campaigns and massive first and third party support in the mainstream consumer press.
So presumably Microsoft and Nintendo as they seem to have the biggest advertising presence, at least in the expensive ad-spaces (TV being massively more expensive than newspapers). Supermarkets and specialist retailers must surely make a heavy contribution with adverts for games at knock-down prices fueling a bit of a price war.
Sony, of course, have even increased their own advertising with the LBP and PSP TV adverts on TV at key points. I even got a mock-up newspaper advertising Resistance 2 in a gadget magazine this month, I was a little taken aback and pleasantly surprised.
The article goes on to note that the advertising has increased its production values this year, matching that of marketing for big movie releases. Hardly surprising since gaming is now the UK’s biggest entertainment industry, making more money than any other form of entertainment here.
So, while most other industries are holding back, hoping for a turn in the markets to save them from the economic meltdown it seems as though the games industry is trying to spend it’s way out of trouble. In the short term that might not be a bad idea, with consumers getting more careful about how they spend their money it might only be the big advertisers that do enough to part them with it.