Nielsen to track video games

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

DALLAS -- The company known for tracking television viewers now plans to do the same thing with video games.

Nielsen Media Research on Wednesday announced an electronic rating service to track who is playing what game. The data will be collected from the same 10,000 sample households used for Nielsen's television ratings.

Subscribers such as advertisers and video game makers will get a weekly ratings reports and charts showing the most popular games, as well as information about the type of console and the genre of the game.

New York-based Nielsen said it is still putting together a database of games to be monitored. The system, set for launch by the middle of next year, will work on the current and next-generation line of consoles from Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co.

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