NeoEdge has raised a new round with some new investors. NeoEdge delivers video ads within casual games. 

More details here

According to The NPD Group, a leader in market research for the entertainment industry, nearly two out of three Americans (63 percent) have played a video game in the past six months. While that level of penetration does not begin to compete with music listening, which is nearly universal (94 percent), it exceeds the percentage of U.S. consumers who report going out to the movies (53 percent), during that same time period. Gaming is also benefiting from new outlets for playing.  Overall 10 percent of U.S. consumers played video games on a social network. Five percent have paid to download a video game from the Web, which is an increase of nearly 2 percent since last year.

“Video games account for one-third of the average monthly consumer spending in the U.S. for core entertainment content, including music, video, games,” said Anita Frazier, video games industry analyst for NPD. “While a portion of that share stems from the premium price of console games, we’re also seeing an overall increase in the number of people participating in gaming year-over-year.”

NPD Group PR

"BIG Family Games is the ultimate Wii game to get all family members, from grandparents to young children, playing together." THQ's Danielle Robinson said. "The Royal Family is arguably the most important family in the country so we felt that they had to have a copy of the new game."

As a promotion THQ has sent the Queen a gold plated wii in promotion of their BIG Family games title

NPD group reported that Nintendo DSi total US sales was over 1M units for Apr 2009. Sales of all other gaming consoled were down compared to the same period last year.

More at Wired

 PopCap Games, Inc., the leading developer and publisher of casual video games, today announced the acquisition of Gastronaut Studios, the premier independent game development studio known for its Xbox and Xbox 360 titles. Gastronaut is the maker of several titles for the Xbox LIVE Arcade service, best known for the award-winning smash hit title Small Arms, one of the top-selling titles on XBLA, and for their work as developers of PopCap's Feeding Frenzy(TM) 2 for XBLA and the upcoming adaptation of Peggle(TM) for XBLA.

source: PopCap Games

 PlayFirst, Inc., the award-winning entertainment company, today announced that Mari Baker, a consumer software and internet industry veteran, has been named its Chief Executive Officer. The company also announced today that Jim Wandrey has joined as Chief Financial Officer. PlayFirst, one of the leaders in casual entertainment, recruited the new leadership to address the growing market opportunity in interactive consumer entertainment.

John's moving on.

Mari joins PlayFirst at an exciting point in the company's history," according to Janice Roberts, Managing Director, Mayfield Fund and member of PlayFirst's Board of Directors. 

full text here.

 Source: Parks associates 

In its new report Networked Gaming: Driving the Future II, the firm forecasts the market for premium casual games will exceed $1 billion in revenues by 2013. 

“Game companies should use social networks and gamer communities as marketing and distribution channels for their new and existing games,” said Stuart Sikes, president, Parks Associates. “Gaming has proven remarkably recession-proof, so as companies try to capture subscriber dollars, these offerings will serve as differentiators in a very competitive market.”

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NPD top 10 in Jan

1) Wii Fit, Wii, 777,000 units

2) Wii Play with remote, Wii, 415,000 units

3) Mario Kart with wheel, Wii, 292,000 units

4) Left 4 Dead, Xbox 360, 243,000 units

5) Call of Duty: World at War, Xbox 360, 235,000 units

6) Skate 2, Xbox 360, 199,000 units

7) Guitar Hero World Tour, Wii, 155,000 units

8) New Super Mario Bros., DS, 135,000 units

9) Mario Kart DS, DS, 132,000 units

10) Lord of the Rings: Conquest, PlayStation 3, 113,000 units.

Source: http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090202.html

 According to recent findings from Top Global Markets, an integrated monthly report from leading providers of consumer and retail information in the video games industry, The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track Limited and Enterbrain, Inc., combined video game software unit sales across the world’s three largest games markets experienced growth of 11 percent in calendar year 2008 (Jan.-Dec.), totaling 409.9 million units versus the 367.7 million units sold across these markets in 2007.

PS3 sales down year over year as wii continues its march.