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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."
Do you think most people would put up with the in-between "cheaper, but not free" step? Seems like they'd have to jump from gamer money to ad money, or people might feel they're not getting a good enough deal in the transition period.
What I fail to understand though is how advertising does -anything- anymore. Too much of it. Targetted ads don't help me either -- if I want something, I generally already know I want it, and will do my own searching for the best product and price. If I don't, telling me about it doesn't help either -- I just don't care.
So at first I imagine it will just be product placement in games, like the vending machines are all Coke or whatever. You see that today in some games.
Then maybe some banner ads.
Then before you know it, you crash your car in Need for Speed because you couldn't see the road because a huge popup was in your way.
And the flashing "shock the monkey and win your free ipod" ads are all over the place.
Then we can expect rogue advertisers to get into the swing of things. So in splinter cell, before you can steal the secret plans from the briefcase, you have to read this letter from president mugabe's uncle that says he has TEN MILLION US DOLLARS hidden in geneva that he trusts in complete confidence for you to send your bank account details to him so he can give you the money because of political strife.
Hopefully we will see some good members of the modding community hack the ads out of PC versions of games. Console gamers are doomed tho.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
But its not going to go away.
You pay $50 for a game, it shoulndt have advertisments so people are going to go for games with this. Well... look at cable TV People pay $50-100 per month for channels that have more commercials. But there is content on cable that you cant get anywhere else. Making a game compelling enough for people to purchase, well, and they maybe wont notice the ads.
But then, games themselves have been made strickly for marketing. Look at any game based on a movie licence. Ok, they are not selling other unrelated products, but they are selling a movie.
But there is a good thing in all this, not all game worlds are really compatible with advertised products. Your probably not going to be finding a +1 magic pepsi anytime soon. If you dont like advertising, dont play the games that use it. Just like you dont have to watch movies with product placement(with is about every major hollywood movie).
I could go on about creating art for profit as opposed to creating art for art, but i need sleep.
later
In America we are imprisoned by our fear of them.
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.
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