Recently, major metrics company Nielsen threw their hat into the ring with a new games rating service. This will have a major effect on in-game advertisers looking for third-party data to evaluate their ad placements. It will also be important to game developers and publishers too, since the data can be used to find out who is playing their games and for how long, giving a quantitative measure of success.

"The value of an entertainment medium is directly proportional to how well it is measured," said Jeff Herrmann, Vice President of Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services, in the original release. "A reliable and accurate standard of measurement for video gaming will drive advertising investment in this medium and help convert video game advertising from a discretionary advertising experiment to a must-have option. Nielsen's unmatched resources, including its portfolio of intellectual property, extensive technology infrastructure and decades of media measurement expertise, are the foundation of the Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services business."

We caught up with Herrmann and talked about all the qualities of Nielsen's latest service.

What Nielsen's GamePlay Metrics is looking to do is similar to what Nielsen currently offers with TV. They will take a sample of the gaming population and use the results from that to extrapolate data on the gaming population of the U.S. There might even be Nielsen number ratings for games in the near future.

"The plan is to use Nielsen panels and IT around solutions that leverage the connected universe of consoles," detailed Herrmann. "The metrics will use the system that's used for TV. We're looking into their TV consumption or internet consumption. This will help the agency or buyer enhance their advertising demographic and there's more power looking at all those sources from one point of view."

"We don't make quality judgments. It's who and how we measure. We sample the U.S. population, and that sample represents the population overall. There's a sample of gamers, and we're using that as the overall gaming population. Using what we've done for TV and applying to videogames," he explained. "Our history is looking at TV shows. Our job now is to look at titles by content advertisement and advertising assessment. Our focus is broader because gaming is part of the larger breadth of consumer activities. We're looking to drill down into when people are gaming and what they're looking at. "

Nielsen is a major player in the field of metrics and soon every major publisher and advertiser is going to want access to their numbers. Not only will Nielsen bring a high amount of quality to their game ratings, they will also offer cross media analysis that no other company can offer. From internet to TV to videogame consumption, Nielsen can track it all and report its findings directly to those who are interested.

"We're working with all the major players, the in game advertisers and publishers," said Herrmann, unable to talk about specific companies due to NDAs. "We're talking to everyone in the industry, since we're a market based industry, not looking to represent one constituent."

"The foundation is our IP portfolio focusing on advertising and audience measurements. We are simply adding videogames to that media measure. We legitimate videogames from a discretionary advertising model to make it more mainstream by stacking up videogames with TV and the internet. It's all about reach and relativity, taking our disciplined approach to media assessment and applying it to games."

"What we're doing quantifies this attractive demographic for advertisers. It will enable a new flow of advertising revenue," he continued. "The U.S. game market is a [10 billion] dollar market, and advertisers want to participate in that. We'll enable a consistent flow of advertising that will let them participate."

If video games are a young market in the entertainment industry, then ads in and dealing with video games are absolutely nascent. Younger still are all of these metrics and focus groups who try and make the most of marketers' advertising budget. Despite these factors and its own newness in the gaming industry, Nielsen is still looking for new ways that it's going to be expanding its business in the future.

Looking down the road somewhat, Herrmann hinted at Nielsen's potential involvement in the MMO scene. "We've talked about console and PC measurement, but we'd like to get a broader sense of virtual worlds... we really haven't talked to anyone yet, though. We're looking at things like Second Life and MMORPGs. This might get started, say, about the first of the year. Right now, we're trying to put a valuation on the density of the market. We're here to help quantify the opportunity."

"Yes, I think in-game ads' significance will only continue to grow. The more measurable the opportunity, the more revenue will flow into that opportunity. It lowers the risk of the media buyer. If there are more quantifiable measures, advertisers feel more comfortable.

"Our first data from this venture will be available to charter subscribers in the March-April time frame and for mid-June next year for the general market," he concluded.