Nielsen, Sony partner to track game usage

The Nielsen Company has inked a deal with Sony Computer Entertainment of America to create a new system for measuring what games people play and how often they play them.

by Helen Leggatt

Online and video games are fast becoming targets for advertisers. Being able to target their in-game ads to relevant gamers is essential in terms of game reality and maximizing interest.

The partnership, which was announced Monday, will allow Nielsen to collect data from hundreds of thousands of PS3, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Home owners. The resulting data, when combined with Nielsen's own game usage data collected from over 12,000 U.S. television households, will enable advertisers using the PlayStation Network to more accurately calculate CPMs, explained Jeff Herrmann, vice president of Nielsen Games. The information would also be vital to Sony should it decide to set up its own in-game advertising network.

Phil Rosenberg, senior vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA) feels the new measurement system will help give more validity to video games as an advertising medium. Ads can be targeted throughout the free PlayStation Network which, apart from game demos and a store, includes online games, online communities and message boards. Data provided by SCEA to Nielsen will be organised by game, not player, said SCEA spokesman Dave Karraker.

Nielsen says it is working with SCEA to “identify server data and determine media data formats that will greatly enhance SCEA's capabilities to deliver the right ad to the right person at the right time across PlayStation Network."

It should be noted that SCEA data will not immediately be available on Nielsen’s GamePlay Metrics measurement project.