Product Placement in Online Gaming

ceejayoz writes "MSNBC/Reuters has an article about product placement in 'The Sims Online'. EA has made a multimillion dollar deal with Intel and McDonalds to include 'Intel's familiar jingle, its product logo, and computers using its Pentium 4 processor' and 'a McDonald's kiosk and ... the company's branded food' in the game."

Comments

Perfect revenue model for TV shows

[Powercntrl]

While I'm sitting here drinking my cold, refreshing Coke, I looked on my KDS LCD flatscreen monitor that I bought from ThinkGeek and realized that they should apply this to TV shows as well. Why interrupt a show with a commercial break when product placement could work just as good? In the movie "The Truman Show", which I watched the other day on my DirectTV satellite system, the "show" that the movie was about had no commercials, just product placements. While that was just a movie, if The Sims proves this can work for other mediums, maybe we'll soon see a future where Tivos can no longer skip over commercials because there AREN'T any to skip over.

A double simulation.

[MongooseCN]

But Mc Donalds meat is already simulated meat. So when it gets used in a simulation, does it become real meat? What a philisophical pondering...

Re:What to do with the extra ad money?

[dattaway]

Pop ups in games add value to the product. You are lucky the price isn't going up for these features.

Guns.

[DarkHelmet]

In the middle of fragging your friends in Doom3, a message appears in the console:

This small show of violence was brought to you by the NRA. Without us, your dreams of actually owning your own mini-gun will never be realized.

I love you Charlton Heston, you damn filthy ape!