Product Placement in Video Games

klaun writes: "Yahoo has a Reuters article about product placement in games. Seems that paid placements are no longer that popular because they don't work. The audience is to sensitive to advertisement being 'crammed down their throat.' Wonder what slashdot thinks of product placement." I actually like ads in games, whether they're spoofs or real, so long as they fit the context of the game.

Comments

Paid placement doesn't work...

[Peyna]

Paid placement doesn't really work, because frankly, most people don't care what the actor is drinking, or what the writing on the wall says.

It does help to make movies and games more realistic, since they will be using brands that you recognize, but that's about all it has ever done for me.

Besides, unless there is something that limits someone from using a certain product in a movie, it's pretty much going to happen anyway, why pay for it? (I might be wrong here, but you don't have pay Pepsi if you want to film a movie and there is a guy in a scene drinking Pepsi, do you?)

Re:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II

[Howie]

I challenge anyone to find a video game with advertisements in it older than that.

Tapper (1983) has you serving Budweiser to fickle customers. From memory, the C64 port did not have the tie-in, even though it was also made by Bally.

Re:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II

[interiot]

NES had a 7-Up version of Othello called Spot. The game rocked for its time, fast graphics and funny animations.

It ads to the realism and pays the bills...

[PhotoGuy]

Real advertisements in games that are attempting to simulate reality, seems like a boon to me. And if helps pay the bills for the game maker, more power to them.

And dynamically changing ads would actually ad more interest to the game. I think it'd be cool to be distracted momentarily by a new interesting ad, and become someone else's frag due to the distraction. Hah!

I find it hard to see the down side. In movies, I think there's a far greater likelihood of compromising the creator's artistic integrity (when each shot starts with a well-framed shot of a Pepsi can :-); in games, where the viewpoints are less well defined, and user controlled, I think it's a lot harder to compromise the game's value.

Whenver the ads rolover, I'd be just like Homer when all the new billboard's come out. Might even end up joining a clown college because of it. "Dooo doo doo do do do do doooo doo dooo dooo"... :-)

-me