Game Advertising Expanding, Becoming Dynamic?

Thanks to Business Week Online for its feature discussing the rise of videogame advertising, as it charts "spending on in-game advertising, currently estimated at around $200 million a year today worldwide, [and which] could reach $1 billion by 2008." As well as kid-oriented gaming sites such as Neopets.com, where "a player might stop by a Disney theater where he can play a Walt Disney movie-related game to earn Neopoints - good for buying shop space and land in the game", the article mentions Massive Inc., an "in-game advertising specialist" which is now signing up advertisers for "campaign-based advertising" in forthcoming titles from Ubisoft and Atari, explaining the innovation by describing a possible scenario: "The gamer goes online to play a racing game, for example, and a batch of ads is served. When a gamer plays offline, Massive continues to serve ads. The ads are integrated into billboards, posters, and even into the plotline of the game, and they change in real-time."

Comments

Re:I'm not so sure people will bite...

[nacturation]

Considering the fact that you have to pay $50 for the latest title, I don't think too many people would enjoy playing a game littered with advertisements.

People happily fork over $50 for a Nike shirt which has a huge Nike advertisement plastered on the front -- the swoosh logo. Why people pay a premium effectively to advertise company logos is beyond me, but I honestly don't see the average consumer caring. If it distracts from the gameplay, then people will take notice. However, for games which integrate advertising in a real-life way (eg: billboards along a city street, ads along the boards in a hockey rink, Smith & Wesson shotguns in Doom...) I think people will happily accept it because it's what they're accustomed to.