Blitz Games to continue making 'advergames' @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on June 04, 2007

News: John Jarvis is named Director of Advergames at the company.

An "advergame" is not some new Internet shorthand for an adventure game. Instead, it's a marketing phrase used to denote a game created as advertising, or an "advertising game." The most well known advergames are, of course, Blitz Games' trio of titles they created for Burger King last year for the Xbox and Xbox 360. While they are the most well known, advergaming goes back a long time, including a PC game that was packed into Cap'n Crunch cereal in 1999 (Cap'n Crunch's Crunchling Adventure) that was actually pretty good.

All of this leads up to the announcement that Blitz Games has promoted John Jarvis to be their "Director of Advergames." Jarvis will oversee Blitz' major expansion into the realm of advergames in his new position and the company has said they've already received inquiries from many interested "Fast Moving Consumer Goods" (FMCG) companies to create more advergames. An FMCG company is basically any company dealing in groceries such as soft drinks, candy, snack foods, kleenex and toilet paper.

Jarvis had the following to say about his new post and the future of advergames, "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."

Blitz Games did not reveal any specific games coming out of their advergaming division, but they did say that Burger King sold sold 3.2 million copies of Big Bumpin', Pocketbike Racer and Sneak King collectively in 2006. The games were later discounted in 2007 until their total stock was sold.