It's the kind of stat that leads to all kinds of foolishness: The market for placing commercials in videogames, also known as "in-game advertising," is projected to hit $732 million by 2010. That, in turn, has turned obscure executives into hot commodities. Darlene Kindler, a former VP at Google-acquired in-game ads startup Adscape Media, is helming Sony Computer Entertainment America's foray into the field. In-game advertising is also the main focus of Sony's Second Life-like Home platform, a virtual world meant to connect PlayStation users. In addition to greed, there's also fear as a classic motivator: Microsoft, Sony's archrival in videogame consoles, recently bought Massive, another in-game ad startup. Of course, Sony and Microsoft's push is based upon one key assumption — that in-game advertising is actually worth something, a very debatable point.