UK games industry spending £128m on Christmas advertising

There may be fewer games on shelves from fewer publishers, but the UK boxed games industry will spend 128m on advertising this Q4 – 30m more than last year.

The majority of that – 68m – will be spent promoting PS4 and Xbox One hardware and software, despite the fact both consoles are expected to be in short supply.

It follows last year’s figure of 99m, where the industry tightened its belt after a difficult few years for the boxed games sector.

TV will play a crucial part in all campaigns this Christmas. Ad tracker Generation Media points to the 360 launch as sign of what we can expect.

Q4 2005 marks the high point over the last eight years,” the firm told MCV. When the Xbox 360 was launched, 61.6 per cent of the year’s individual TVRs were deployed between September 23rd to December 31st.”

But it’s out-of-home activity that has seen the biggest increase in investment, with shopping centre, football stadium and university tours planned for PS4, Xbox One, 2DS, Wii U, Watch Dogs, Skylanders, FIFA 14 and more.

The 128m figure comes from an MCV survey of boxed games publishers and retailers.