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Videogames And Car Marketing Intersect
Thanks to the Detroit News for their article discussing how videogames have become a great selling tool for automobiles. The piece discusses the willingness of car manufacturers to see their models used in games, with a few exceptions: "Sony Computer Entertainment America spokesman Ryan Bowling says Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini demanded exorbitant licensing fees - but that's why they aren't in Gran Turismo." It also mentions the thorny issue of car damage, with Alex St. John of WildTangent, developer of a Chrysler 'advergaming' title, noting: "In the past, advertisers could never imagine a commercial where you dent a car... But half the fun of a game is driving recklessly." A Chrysler spokesperson explains this change of heart for their new game, saying "...corporate attorneys determined that gaming is enough of a 'fantasy' to make it permissible to damage vehicles."
Now, instead of the massive amount of people who purchase racing games because of the cars they can drive/customize/bastardize; the market will grow tenfold because of the people who buy racing games because of the ability to destroy said cars. ;)
Of all the Universal Constants, here's one I know: Nice guys finish last
The only thing that they have to do now is put officially licensed cars in the Grand Theft Auto series, and I'll be happy. I'm surprised that they wouldn't want to after its success.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
Using Carmageddon to sell SUV's is a little too far perhaps? but you gotta love the feeling!
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
Methinks GTA 5 creators are already drowning in a sea of Detroit glad-handing to make their cars the "it" cars for their anticipated sequel.
Imagine: "You've done the drive bys, picked up the hookers, and run-over the competition, now you can OWN the real thing- introducing the two thousand seven Chevrolet Infernus..."
Same old, same old from the advertising industry.
With my brand new video game featuring my mom's Ford station Wagon! All the kids will want to hang with me!
I've always found that that the lack of damage and the atrocious AI meant that you could always corner past the pack by slamming into them sideways on. You could almost take a corner at full speed AND take out an opponent in one movement. If that's gone, I'll be a little disappointed.
I worked on a recent racing game (that used hotted up average cars rather than Porche or Ferraris probably due to the high licencing costs). The car manufacturers wanted more money if the cars were going to have damage so they decided to cut that feature.
They also become upset if their car under-performed another (even if that was the case in real life) so the cars all seemed to handle the same.
GT is about simulation. If you just want to hit cars get another game.
This is basically a branded interactive commercial practice, called advergaming, applied to the automobile sector. There are games out promoting all kinds of products and industries and they're pretty successful. Forrester Research predicts advertising revenues from online gaming will reach $1 billion by 2005.
YAYA, a company that creates such games has a Chrysler case study on their site that reads:
Results: The game went online Aug. 13 and in its first week attracted 40,000 players, with an average age of 45. Some 42 percent were women. What's turned the head of DaimlerChrysler marketers is the high percentage of users who expressed interest in learning more about Chrysler products. Of the 40,000 Get Up and Go users, 68 percent requested more information. They've also created games for Ford and GM with similar successes.
What I found interesting was a survey (by Harris Interactive and PERT Survey Research) that found 40 percent of the Web sites of the companies they surveyed offered games but that only 12 percent of the consumers surveyed said they wanted games.
Massive by Design
I can't think of another game that markets cars better than Gran Turismo. Come on now, I consider myself a car fanatic and I have never heard of Nissan Skyline until the game came out.
I've wondered why the car companies were so anal about this.
Taking PR advice from your lawyer is like taking financial advice from your bookie.
"Sony Computer Entertainment America spokesman Ryan Bowling says Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini demanded exorbitant licensing fees - but that's why they aren't in Gran Turismo."
Curiously, not only are the first two in PGR2, but can be damaged as well. I guess its all in the priorities, and GT seems more interested in making sure there is yet another variation of the Evo 7 than anything that might handle differently. The third game's overemphasis on boring box saloons that happen to have very large rally engines in them completely ruined it for me.
Bitter? Never.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
In some games, when Porsche has not granted permission, the game company will go after Ruf - a small company in Germany that takes normal Porsches and builds Rufs from them. As of now they are the smallest car manufacturer in the world - a product of the low volume and the fact that the cars they fashion get their own VINs.
However, sometimes Porsche grants permission (PGR2) but in the past they made their own game - 2000's Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (website has since closed, and still one of the most realistic car sims). All in all, an interesting topic.
Besides Gran Turismo and some GTA, another popular driving game is Initial D
http://www.hitmaker.co.jp/game/INITIALD/
Initial D is based on an anime and manga about people street racing in modified Japanese cars.
The arcade game lets you pick a car, and for an additional purchase, you get a magnetic card to save your progress and win/loss records against other drivers (the arcade unit has 2 seats), among other things.
The whole premise is tuning and modding the car to make it go faster or handle better on some challenging courses. Its driving engine isn't as realistic as Gran Turismo, though, but colliding with a wall at high speed in Initial D will drop your speed a lot and your acceleration is messed up for a few seconds.
Back to the original point: When you select a car, you see a whole bunch of Japanese cars to choose from. This is definitely advertising.
*drives his virtual Mazda RX-7*
i'm still looking forward to the day some gaming company makes a games that has cars which you can actually wrap around a telephone pole, for example, and have the character driving it ejected through the windshield and fragged upon hitting pavement.
that an other realistic accident car-damage and fatalities.
if you have in-game car accidents linked to driver-character mortality, then maybe players could drive more carefully? just a thought.
What I can't understand is how they can possibly object to modeling vehicle damage. I just don't see how simulated damage is going to reflect negatively on... well, ANYTHING except the player's ability to "drive" a simulated car. It's just another case of lawyers taking things to extremes in order to justify their own existence.
I've also always wondered whether the licensing agreements contain terms stipulating certain performance levels (perhaps even in relation to competing products -- or even within their own product line). That also leads me to wonder how they address those games which permit cheesy modifications.
Bah. Lawyers.
Slashdot quality declines as the number of hot grits posts decreases. - Provolt's Law, Apr-09-2005