The web this week

Home field advantage

This week's sites are ranked by the proportion of their audience who have played online games in the last four weeks, Nielsen/NetRatings NetWatch says. So it's no great surprise, analyst Jennifer Reddington says, that the two sites with the largest percentage - gpforums.co.nz and gpstore.co.nz - are both published by Gameplanet, a key local player in New Zealand gaming. According to the website, Gameplanet "was created with the vision of bringing to New Zealanders a place where you can play games, buy games, talk games and meet gamers".

Hardware proliferation

According to Nielsen, the number of people living in a household with a games machine has increased by 25 per cent in the past two years, and a third of those have two or more different brands of machines in the home. Both online and in-home gaming appeal mainly to the 10 to 19 age group, and also enjoy a following among 20- to 29-year-olds.

Ads continue spread

In-game advertising is on the rise, Reddington says, among marketers looking to reach the 17 to 34 age demographic. Options for in-game product placement and brand advertising exist in both online and in-home games, and the wide variety of genres available - including action/adventure, arcade, racing, real-time strategy and sports - is providing plenty of possibilities for marketers in a broad range of product and service categories.