The video game industry is in as much a recession as the rest of the country (Video Game Sales in Free Fall). But it is still roughly a two billion dollar a month industry and is poised for major growth over the next few months. Even separate from Sony’s recent price cut of its PS3, most of the major new game titles of 2009 are scheduled to be released over the next 4-5 months (The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, etc.).

With that said, the video game industry is still a major untapped source of opportunity for marketers. In-game advertising is still a relatively small business (around $400 million now), as are other marketing tie-ins (similar to the way companies have advertising tie-ins to upcoming movie releases). Moreover, the demographics of the overall video game market is a lot broader than teenage boys. In fact, studies show a large audience of both men and women in their thirties (Video Gamers Older Than You Think).

As marketers are looking for ever new avenues to communicate their messages, this is one medium worthy of new or renewed attention.

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