You heard right, before Jack Black was starring in ‘King Kong’ he was speaking with a fake accent pitching the ‘Pit Fall’ game for The Atari.

The new Halo 3 commercial debuted on Monday Night Football last night which grabbed the attention of rivals among the video game industry. The 60 second commercial spot from Microsoft was pretty interesting considering the game does not come out until next fall. It is as if the hype is going to be so huge for this game that advertising it a year ahead of time will build brand awareness early on. Possibly, with all the frenzy over the XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii, and the Playstation 3 the advertisers are trying to build momentum for the XBOX 360 console (developed by Microsoft and where Halo 3 can be used).

While it’s de rigeur Hollywood to show trailers for anticipated sequels a year or more in advance of their release, the strategy is foreign in the gaming world. But “Halo” is unique in the industry, having sold almost 15 million units for more than $700 million in sales, and “Halo 3″ is the last game of the trilogy.

Sick of looking for a Wii online for your kids? Just use the new Wii Inventory Tracker which automatically checks websites for Wii availability.

Taco Bell announced today that they will be giving away $12,500 US Taco Bucks redeemable for food purchases in exchange for the first person to agree to the terms and email Taco Bell. Your Playstation 3 will be given away to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America Foundation. If you want to give away your PS3 for Taco Bell Bucks then email tacobellnews@tacobell.com with your name and phone number.

This is weird, but Amazon has restricted people from selling Playstation 3’s when you do a custom search in the Amazon Marketplace.Â� However, when I checked out my affiliate gaming website today, PS3GameSearch.com and clicked on the PS3 bubble for the systemÂ� it took me to a listing with only two hidden used Playstation 3’s going for $3,000 a piece.

Get yours listed over there on Amazon to turn a bigger profit on your Playstation 3. There are only TWO other listings to contend with.

Again. Another wonderful clip of how PS3 was effective at marketing this morning. I love how a small portion of the people just stand and watch when everyone else rushes then just cut through police to get to the front of the door.

You think your product has good marketing? The Playstation PS3 came out today and there were riots, a shooting at a Wal-Mart, robberies, and mobs to get this console. Desperate supply calls for desperate actions. Is the Playstation 3 something you need enough to get shot over? Well some people are crazy enough to get this thing to probably yes.

Below is a video of the Playstation 3 riots

Playstation 3 Smashing

Why wait in line that long if you’re going to do this?

The Playstation 3 was released today and in an effort to combat the panic over the limited supply of the system, Microsoft might be selling the XBOX 360 for only $100 through Amazon’s website.

Here’s a screenshot from the Amazon website today.

Yes, today is the day you were supposed to get up at 3am and wait in line at Best Buy until it opens at 8am for the Playstation 3. I called the store two days ago and was told that they would retail for $599.99 and first-come first-serve is the rule. A blogger named Chris Thomas compiled this Playstation 3 waiting-in-line-forever video.

Microsoft, feeling the heat from today’s release of Sony’s Playstation 3, has partnered with Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures to offer on-demand movie rentals through its’ XBOX Live Video Marketplace. There will be no additional cds or hardware needed. Everything can be done through the systems internet connection. CBS, MTV, and Turner Broadcasting will be selling television show downloads through the marketplace early next year.

Movies will retail for $3.99 and older releases for $2.99. Television shows are expected to go for $1.99 an episode. Sony has plans to do something similar but nothing yet is concrete.

The top in-game video advertisers were tracked by marketing research study Phoenix Marketing International which revealed the top product placements to be Coke, Pepsi, Nike, and Adidas. Video game players see the brands while playing their favorite video games.

The study looked at 70 top video games available for the current generation systems and warned that advertising should be taken loosely. Gamers in the study were not asked what ads or brands they say while playing, but rather if they recalled seeing any real products in the game. Some of the popular brands gamers recalled were:

- More than 54% of Madden 2007 gamers recalled seeing some form of in-game advertising.

- The most popular types of products for in-game advertising were apparel and footwear, beverages, cars, fast food, electronics, and beauty care.

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Nintendo will be spending $200 million to market the Nintendo Wii to battle the release of Playstation 3. Nintendo has continually lost the video game console race war and is hoping a $200 million marketing bid will wrestle sales away from Sony PS3 and the XBOX 360 from Microsoft.

The advertising campaign will be the biggest ever for Nintendo which begins selling the Nintendo Wii in the US November 19th, just two days after the Playstation 3 debuts. Television ads and print ads will begin poping up more than usual for all three consoles tomorrow. Nintendo will highlight the ease of the Nintendo Wii’s hand-motion controller and library of family friendly games.

Advertising agency T3 recently put together an online game when assigned the duty of promoting Marriott hotel’s new designed rooms. According to Statesman, “games have a huge shelf life… a typical print ad lasts a couple of seconds. A game can last 10 minutes.”

“It’s all about engagement,” said Kirk Drummond, the director of the creative and innovation department at T3. “It’s not that the goal is to book a room at that moment. It’s creating more connections from our consumer to the brand.”

These new advertisements, called advergames, are a clear shift in marketing strategy. These addictive games are excellent at creating awareness and highlight a brand. These advergames are especially useful as a lucrative tool for the 18 - 34 year old demographic. Kids are no longer spending all of their time watching movies and television. Instead, they spend more of their time playing video and online games. Read

Microsoft will be advertising the XBOX360 and Gears of War on leading video sharing website YouTube this holiday season. The advert is very simple but with a simple click of the mouse you are taken to the Offical Gears of War website.

Retailing giant Best Buy announced that web based Playstation 3 preorders were not going to happen this year. Speculators have told Business Week that due to the number of orders on Best Buy’s website, the site must’ve received more orders than the company could possible fill. This, unexplainably, was why they decided to cancel them. Best Buy will open its’ doors at 8:00 for the launch and expect hundreds of eager buyers outside of every door of its’ store. Best Buy’s Musolf says: “It was never our intention to take preorders in the store, on the phone, and online—and the game will not be available online when it comes out either.”

This wasn’t the first time a gaming console preorder glitched occured. Last year, Amazon.com accidently took preorders of Microsoft’s XBOX 360 and later canceled the orders. Amazon told consumers that there was a ’system error’ and that the preorders would not be available to those who signed up. Wal-Mart did the same thing in November of last year. Luckily, the only good one out of them all was Wal-Mart who decided to fill the orders anyways after making the mistake. Read