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Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

February 20, 2012 – 12:39 pm | 3 Comments

Tiny Diggers has just been released on the iPad and soon the Mac computer. Here’s the details on this fun, educational game from TouchTilt Games.
Tiny Diggers Delivers Learning With Construction Trucks For Kids on the …

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Nielsen To Track Video Games

Submitted by on October 18, 2006 – 2:24 pm3 Comments

nielsen.bmpGamers take note, Nielsen is watching. Starting in mid-2007, Nielsen Media Research, who currently samples about 10,000 homes to judge the national viewing audience in it’s “Nielsen Ratings,” will launch Gameplay Metrics. Gameplay Metrics will “enable the video game industry to develop an advertising business model to offset the steep development costs of new titles for next-generation consoles.”

“Subscribing clients will receive, on a weekly basis, easy-to-access ratings charts and rankings which show the most-played video games. Clients will be given necessary elements -titles, platform, genre, daypart and demographics – from which to base their advertising and planning decisions.”

The more and more I read about advertising creeping farther into video games, the farther and farther the industry gets from what is necessary to keep it afloat. The days of creativity in the video game industry are definitely numbered, if not already over, and the days of games being developed solely on the research results from a company like Nielsen are just around the corner.

Via Official Nielsen Press Release

  • Matt (Aeropause)

    I don’t know if you can ever kill creativity but you can certainly hold it back. It’s all about money. If publishers see a tested formula that gets a profit and something completely new and risky where do you think they’re going to go? They want money and they seem to care less about us. What do you think would happen if the developers revolted and just said they were done making sequels? I don’t know what would happen but it would sure be interesting…

  • SP420

    “they were done making sequels”

    Tell that to Microsoft, which has been experiencing a gigantic windfall with the Halo franchise. I think it’s a shame that Halo Wars is even being produced. Halo should be laid to rest with a trilogy and that’s it.

    Sequels will always be there. If the developers see a profitable title, they will expand on it.

    As for this Nielsen thing, it will obviously only land up hurting us in the long run in terms of game content. But I’m hoping that the “an advertising business model to offset the steep development costs of new titles for next-generation consoles” clause will possibly spell lower prices for us at the retail store…

  • Psh!

    I still don’t get how 10,000 homes can be a big enough sample to judge 300,000,000 people’s veiwing habits.