Nielsen To Begin Tracking Game Play

Gamespot is reporting that Nielsen is now going to be tracking game play statistics. The same 10,000 sample households that dictate what succeeds and fails in the television world will also have their game playing habits recorded by the company. From the article: "The rating system will monitor the goings-on of game consoles, including next-generation models such as Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. Data will include which games are played most frequently, along with corresponding information about the demographics of the players. The video-game rating system is also intended to offer insight into what television and Internet trends the players follow. Called GamePlay Metrics, it will be the first project to come out of Nielsen's new Wireless and Interactive Services Division, which itself launched today."

Comments

Re:Oh great.

[indifferent children]

1. Is that legal? 2. Aren't these connections one-way?

It is legal (USA) for the cable companies to report viewer totals down to the zip-code (incl. +4, I think). They cannot legally reveal information about indivdual houses, and they couldn't provide information about *who* in the household is doing the watching. Nielsen tells that advertisers that it was the 19-year-old son watching Firefly, and the 43-year-old mother watching Desperate Housewives.

Nielsen doesn't cancel shows. Stupid people choosing to watch Survivor instead of Wonderfalls, cancel shows. That being said, if the audience wants stupid crap, who is Nielsen (or anyone else) to tell the advertisers that they must give money to networks to produce shows that no one is going to watch?