"Retail sales capture only a portion of the total audience playing individual game titles, suggesting current in-game advertising deals, which are primarily tied to these sales figures, under-value the medium," Michael Dowling, CEO, Interpret, noted. "As Gameasure clearly shows, the impact of social game play, rental, used sales and pass-around is not inconsequential and can vary widely by game title/genre, so having a more comprehensive measure of game play activity is crucial for in-game advertising to be seriously considered."

As an example of a video game's extensive reach, Activision's Call of Duty 3 sold 2 million units in the U.S. as of February 3, 2007, according to The NPD Group. However, the actual reach as reported by Gameasure is nearly 9 million gamers – a difference of a factor of 4; EA's Madden NFL 2007 has sold over 6 million units, but 14 million have actually played the game - just over a factor of 2’s difference.

Another key aspect of Gameasure is that it quantifies, for the first time, the demographic profile of individuals playing specific titles. For example, 21% of all males between the ages of 18 to 34 have played Halo 2; of the 6.8 million people who have played Guitar Hero 2, 56% are males 12 to 34 and 30% are females 12 to 34. "There is a paucity of credible data on who actually plays different video game titles and franchises," said Dowling. "Gameasure takes the guess work out of the equation and provides a credible third-party measure of game play activity for buyers and sellers."

Advertisers and agencies have been exploring opportunities to integrate or place their brands/products into video games as a way to reach the elusive male audience. To date, there has been no reliable source of information to evaluate the reach or duration impact of video games. Activision, a long-time proponent of integrating advertising into video games (dating back to 1999) is a charter client of Interpret's Gameasure, having assisted in the development of the product, along with selected advertising agency stakeholders. "We've known for a long time that the secondary reach of video games is significant," said David Anderson, Senior Director of Business Development, Activision. "Having a third-party measurement will not only help validate video games as a viable alternative, but will properly value the medium."