Video Game Industry Outgrows Film and Music

Recently I was in the cinema and saw a trailer for "Assassin's Creed: Revelations". During the trailer I thought, wow I need to watch that movie. Until I realized it's not a trailer for a movie, but an advertisement for a video game. It happened to me again, when I saw the poster in the tube and the thought came up: didn't I see that trailer? Must be an awesome movie. I even tried to google, in which cinema I could see it. Then I realized that I have been confused before and that my mind tricked me again. The poster just looked so much like a movie ad.

The way video games are advertised becomes more and more similar to film advertising and the budget they spend to market a new game must also reach the sums for Hollywood blockbusters. This has also its reason. Without really being noticed by the media, the video game industry started to outgrow the film and music industry. The global video game industry was worth $66 billion in 2010, while the global box-office results for film in 2010 was only $31.8 billion. "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3", a shooter video game took $775 million in the first five days after its release, which you can compare to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II", the highest-grossing film of 2011 and and its $202 million it made in the first five days.

The video game industry takes therefore place in the first row of the entertainment business and its growth predictions are even more exciting.
No wonder that also brands start to discover product placement in video games.