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The move comes following the success of games it made for Burger King – the developer produced three games that worked on both 360 and original Xbox which were sold through restaurants. So far the promotion has sold 3.2m units at $3.99 each – and Burger King recently said the games contributed to an uplift in its Q4 profits.
Since then the studio has other enquiries to produce similar products for other brand-holders – and so has set up its own advergaming team to handle future productions. the studios has hired John Jarvis to take the reigns of a group which will sit in Blitz’ Arcade division.
Jarvis commented: “This is an area that has huge potential particularly as the new consoles will live in the lounge and become the focal point of home entertainment. In-game advertising has begun to make in-roads but having a brand fully interpreted in a fun, compelling gaming environment is a much more powerful, longer-living and creative option.”
Philip Oliver, CEO of Blitz Games added: “Brands and advertisers are continually looking at ways to keep their messages relevant to current and future generations of consumers, clearly videogames hit a large and continually expanding demographic – and the growth of online gaming will offer very interesting possibilities for advergames including: live tracking of consumers habits; likes and dislikes of players on an unprecedented scale.”
