Ad Sense...

It's impossible to think that video game sales will continue to climb at their meteoric rate, but that is exactly what continues to happen as the industry reported a 23 percent growth, according to this Reuters report.

I bring that up so that I can talk about the next piece of news, which at first blush, will appear to be unrelated. Newspaper companies announced that overall advertising was down in their national books, but local and regional groups have seen a marked increase.

So, how are the two related? Simply in this way: As video games continue to see a staunch growth in revenues -- and as they begin to experiment with in-game advertising, it's likely that we'll be overseeing a rapid shift in the marketplace, away from traditional media outlets and more towards very targeted segments of the population.

For the game industry, this means that -- particularly with a game like John Madden Football and it's 10 million units sold -- big time ad buys will be coming its way. That, in and of itself, is enough to potentially push the industry's revenues into the stratosphere. And, it fundamentally separates itself from the music and movie industries, which must spend millions marketing their products.