AtomShockwave just announced the launch of their new In-Games Ad Network. The first game to take incorporate the in-game ads is our own SWITCH Wakeboarding.

Fortunately with a game like SWITCH we can incorporate ads in non-intrusive and intuitive locations. The end user now sees branding in the same locations they would expect if this was an actual wakeboarding event.

This should prove to be a great way for advertisers to reach this audience, and allow them to do it in a manner that doesn’t detract from the experience at all.

I’m not exactly sure how this compares to the previous penetration statistics we’ve , but the US Census Bureau has just released a report on Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2003.

The report covers a lot of information regarding general US internet usage from 2003. Some of the more interesting things are:

• 61.8% of homes have a computer, and 54.7% have internet access
• 75% of homes with 3+ people have a computer, with 66% online
• 81% of householders with a college degree have a computer, and 76% are online
• 92% of homes with $100,000/year have a computer and are online

There’s a lot more interesting statistics in there which show just how pervasive the internet is for today’s households.

(via Clickz)

While lots of people have talked about an aging gamer audience, this is the first article I’ve seen referring to Grandma Gamers. Apparently there is a 69 year old Grandma “Old Grandma Hardcore” who’s an avid gamer. She even has a blog. While the article itself is a good read, there’s some very interesting facts listed too:

• 19% of gamers are over 50
• 53% of gamers expect to play as much, or more than they do now in 10 years
• Adult gamers have been playing an average of 12 years

All of this is just even more proof that gaming is for much more than just “pimple faced teenagers” It is truly a mass-market medium, and progressive brands will do well to embrace this.

According to the latest research from Nielsen//NetRatings 60% of US Internet users now get online with broadband connections. This is up 10% from this time last year.

Nielsen now states that over 120 Million Americans get online with high speed connections.

This is great news for advergame developers and anyone else who’s trying to reach an online audience. Now that a solid majority of users are on high-speed connections we can continue to deliver even higher quality experiences that aren’t feasible on a 56K modem.

Ball State University has just released a study looking at concurrent media exposure. Concurrent Media Exposure. According to a couple of the articles I’ve read about this it contains some interesting information.

Most notable and important to advergame developers is that while TV is still tops, researchers found that the computer was used for more than 120 minutes each day, and that web and email usage was much higher on Friday than any other day.

Perhaps the most surprising finding is that 18-24 year olds spent less time online than any other demographic under 60 years old.