Hogwarts Legacy is the big upcoming release in February (10th)

The game is set in the 1890s and follows a student starting at Hogwarts in the fifth year, 100 years before the Harry Potter books were set. It will be the first console game set in the wizarding world for nearly 10 years.

How Smart TV is helping brand marketeers to effectively reach a gaming audience

Connected TV might not be the first place you think of when it comes to gaming, but Samsung Ads have put together some research in the Gaming Trends Report. It looks at gaming habits across the EU5 and assesses viewing of gamers vs. non-gamers. Some of the key facts from the report:

• Average screen time in Q1 2022 was 45% more than non-gamers.
• Gamers spent on average, almost 195 hours in streaming environments on Samsung TVs in Q1 2022... 66 hours more than non-gamers.
• Gamers’ average advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) consumption is 41% higher than non-gamers.

Sourced from the Drum, Samsung Ads

Is this the most important patent ever for gaming and metaverse advertising?

Much of 2022 was spent continuing to lay the groundwork for in-game advertising and part of this was the publication of the updated intrinsic in-game advertising standards from the IAB and MRC.

Anzu have secured a patent for a system that can measure the percentage of the creative on-screen in a 3D world, accounting for the size of the ad, how long it is in view and the angle it is viewed at. If said creative is a video, the duration of the view can be also be measured.

This is a big development for the gaming industry, which now allows clients to have more assurances that their creative is being shown correctly.

Sourced from the Drum

Roblox bookings grow, hinting at stronger user spending

Roblox saw users, engagement and spend on the platform grow in December on a year-on-year comparison.

The final point is important as purchases on their in-game currency, Robux, is a good indicator of consumers’ appetite for spending on virtual items and therefore, potentially the metaverse.

According to their December Key Metrics announcement, the platform showed strong growth across the following key metrics:

• Daily active users over the month were up 18% YOY.
• Hours engaged grew 21% YOY.
• Bookings up between 17%-20% YOY.

Sourced from Roblox, WARC

Written by: Harry Gray, Ad Ops Manager, december19