Game On!
October 20, 2008
It's one of the most hotly anticipated videogames of the fall, in a franchise that has already sold more than 4 million copies. Midnight Club: Los Angeles, from game publisher and Grand Theft Auto creator Rockstar, will have its street-racing fans zipping from one end of the sprawling City of Angels to the other in tricked-out exotic and tuner cars, all the while talking smack to each other on their T-Mobile Sidekicks.

Bigger Playing Field
October 20, 2008
Just in the last 18 months or so, new options have opened up to advertisers. Major game publishers like Activision, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and 2K Sports have started allowing in-game ads in their marquee titles, where they'd held those back in the past for fear of a gamer backlash. Once they found no push-back for billboards, banners and full-scale product integrations, they opened up best-selling titles like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell franchise, Guitar Hero 4 and Madden Football '09.

Media Plan Nitty-Gritty
October 20, 2008
It's a rare media plan that has a line item for in-game advertising. The money usually comes from a digital or emerging media budget, those in the industry say, or, increasingly, it's siphoned off from traditional spending on TV, print and out of home.