In-game advertising has come up a few times here over the years as something we all expect to become popular sooner or later. It never really seemed to materialize into anything really big. Perhaps things are about to change though... Nielson Entertainment Media (The company famous for their TV ratings system) announced a little while ago that they are partnering with Activision.

Michael Dowling, general manager at Nielsen, said the technology is far more advanced than the People Meter, the device used by Nielsen Media Research to monitor the nation’s television viewing habits. The technology may involve a non-audible code inserted into the game that would be picked up by a Nielsen device. Nielsen is currently in negotiation with several game studios to insert the code in their next generation of titles. According to Dowling, Nielsen’s efforts will track not just impressions, but game play itself.

The article goes on to give a couple other examples of developing in-game advertising technology.