The plugs reflect a growing business reality - video games are stealing eyeballs from movies and television, where product placement has long been a staple.

TV viewership among men aged 18 to 34 declined by about 12 percent last year while that group spent 20 percent more time on games, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Video games now attract not just hard-core gamers, but people of all ages and more women than ever. In the United States, overall sales reached $10.7 billion last year - more than movie box-office receipts - and is expected to reach nearly $16.9 billion in 2008, according to market research firm DFC Intelligence.

Revenues from game advertising worldwide are following the migration from remote control to joystick, expected to grow from $200 million a year today to $1 billion in 2008, predicted DFC's president David Cole.

"If the audience is there, the advertiser will be there," said Anthony Noto, a media entertainment and Internet analyst at Goldman Sachs.