In-Game Advertising Breaks Out

UID1000000 writes "MSNBC reports that companies like Nielsen are implementing tracked advertising in video games. Viacom is also considering in-game advertising. I can't wait until your first person shooter stops and drinks a nice cold refreshing soda."

Comments

consoles and freeware

[BoldAC]

I'm not quite sure how this is all that new. Many, many console games have ads throughout the game. I was playing Madden 2005 just a few minutes ago... and the billboards in the stadiums are pushing all sorts of EA-related stuff.

What has shocked me is the failure of freeware with embedded ads. For a while it seemed many freeware authors were trying to make money with this concept.

As a freeware author myself, it didn't work well for my product. People preferred the old, buggy ad-free version to the final version with small, tasteful ads. I ended up making more money off the google ads on the download page than I did from the product.

I finally killed the ads and the number of people using the program hit the roof.

AC

Re:consoles and freeware

[proj_2501]

Madden 2005? I remember the big hullaballoo over Pizza Hut ads all over the NES version of the Ninja Turtles arcade game!

Re:consoles and freeware

[antifoidulus]

The game came with a coupon for a free personal pan pizza, now that is great advertisment to bovine America. Get your kids to play video games, then take them out for some greasy pizza!

Re:consoles and freeware

[Anonymous Coward]

The only people that will see the ads are people watching someone play. When you're "in game" you have other things attended to. Since so many games are now "1 person per console" I expect it to be less than successful.

I was in a company that attempted this 4 years ago. it was a stupid idea then, too.

Re:consoles and freeware

[stretch0611]

I forgot to mention:

It may be a game publisher/ad-exec's dream, but it is not a player's dream.

Also I suppose it is possible to circumvent the ads in single player mode if your pull your dsl/cable/dial-up line out of your computer before you play.

Re:consoles and freeware

[PainKilleR-CE]

These are simply within the chat interface on battle.net, though, and not in the games themselves.

On the other hand, I've noticed at particular times (it's been a while since I've been on battle.net, though, so I can't say recently) that the ads have been dominated by Blizzard's own products, meaning that they weren't getting many outside advertisers. At the same time, I'd think that this means they aren't tracking very well, as I don't need to see ads for games I already own and have used on battle.net.

Re:consoles and freeware

[glesga_kiss]

I remember the big hullaballoo over Pizza Hut ads all over the NES version of the Ninja Turtles arcade game!

Likewise, I'm sure early sports games such as Fifa 96 had advertising. All stadiums tend to have advert boards now, so it was obvious to include these in the game. Initially they used to use the publishing house name and other games they made, but after a point they started to accept advertising from third-party sponsors. That probably began with some "official sponsor of ..." creeping into the games.

While the submitter may have incorrectly indicated that this is the first game advertising, I think it is true in terms of downloading new adverts as time goes by.

If you do decide to introduce this form or advertising, tracking is a neccessary evil. You need to know which users have seen which ads. Your clients want to know how many eyeballs saw each one. However, I see no reason why this could not be done on the client side using anonymous submission of the data.

Re:consoles and freeware

[kris_lang]

It's not the ADS that are new, it's the fact that the statistic-bots at Nielsen-VNU are attempting to sell compiled packages of market demographics of who exactly VIEWS these ads to the purveyors of advertisements. Nielsen-VNU does this so that the purveyors of ads can charge more for these ads by claiming that more of those key 18-36 males actually view these ads. Nielsen also competes with soundscan and arbitron for radio ad penetration, also partners with TiVo to sell those kewl demographics that TiVo can collect, and sells the key information about those "nielsen t.v. log" viewers such as income, race, age, and buying habits for large chunks of money. Nielsen recently had to re-readjust their amazingly skewed statistics when their N.Y. ratings showed a HUGE drop in young hispanic males viewing certain channels. Turns out that they had modified their sampling formulas and ratios and, as a result of that, the "viewing" numbers that they extrapolated from that (and which the big networks broadcast and cable and satellite use to calculate the charges for their ads) changed lots of money changing hands. Univision protested loudly.

Fox station in San Diego got in trouble (dropped off the Nielsen results tracker for x period of time for having an advert saying "hey nielsen viewers, write down our station now!", and you know a lot of those radio give-away gimmicks that say "listen at 1:30 this afternoon for such and such a song and CALL IN TO WIN!" are often temporally correlated with Nielsen logging times for radio listenership.

Re:consoles and freeware

[Anonymous Coward]

To be honest, so long as I'm allowed to 'register' my level of approval by fraggin' the in-game billboards, I'm all for it.

Like, spawn your own bots that actively hunt $PRODUCT_I_HATE 's ads and railgun 'em. For hours at a time. And maybe even get 'em to defend $LIFESTYLE_INDICATORS_I_FEEL_PERSONALLY_ATTACHED_T O.

Let's show 'em what this demographic's made of.

Re:consoles and freeware

[plover]

I wish I had mod points to give you, this is very insightful.

And I guess I've surprised even myself with this. I'm an ad-blocker. I'm sorry to anyone's web page I visit that's paid for with advertising-sponsored links, but there is only so much flashy blinky sh!t that I can take. I run the Proxomitron and have a huge ruleset. On top of this I use Mozilla with the popup blocker, and use adblock constantly. I have the flashblocker plugin that simply does not display flash until it's clicked on. It's been so long that I surfed without all this armor that I find myself shocked by the crap people put up with. Pop ups, pop unders, flashy DHTML blocks that fly around their screens, it's like a carnival leaping up to disguise the fact that they are serving information. Hell, I already find the "games.slashdot.org" color scheme to be distatefully distracting enough, without the clutter of banners.

I do have a few exceptions: I don't deliberately block ads on the sites that I frequent (fark, UF, etc.) in hopes that they get some stipend simply for the traffic. I even buy from the banner ads on some of those sites just to give the business their way.

I also don't mind SOME OF the banner ads I've found in certain products. For example, XFire is completely sponsored by one small banner ad located at the top center of the screen. It's not PUNCH THE MONKEY BLINKING, it's not spyware sponsored, it's just a small billboard. I appreciated the effort so much I've purchased a couple of games through them just to say "hey, well done guys, this is the right thing to do."

My other exception is Google's advertising. It's always been text based, so it's never been the visual distraction that causes me to want to block it. I don't always read them, but sometimes I do. Certainly, it gets much more of my attention than the blinky "turn away from the flashing lights" ads. Plus, I've always considered Google to be "the good guys" for all the reasons you mentioned.

I once evem wrote a proxomitron filter to strip the google ads, but removed it when I realized it was advertising that didn't drive me off, and that might benefit the sites hosting it. So, you're absolutely right -- Google's ads aren't worth the trouble to block.

Re:consoles and freeware

[Paulrothrock]

Also I suppose it is possible to circumvent the ads in single player mode if your pull your dsl/cable/dial-up line out of your computer before you play.

Unless you're playing over the Internet, or if they rig the game so that you can't play unless you have an active Internet connection with a certain port open to receive images.

Money grubbing bastards like this have no soul. They will try everything to squeeze every ounce of money out of you.

I have no problem with people getting paid for good work. However, I don't think they should be able to make unreasonable demands, like forcing you to watch ads during a game you bought and paid for.

Re:consoles and freeware

[anon*127.0.0.1]

I'm going to be leery of any game that interrupts gameplay to deliver a commercial. If Max Payne 3 has some cutscene where Max stands still for 20 seconds and watches a TV commercial for Mountain Dew, I'm not going to like it. If my kids racing game on the PS2 makes them watch a 30 second commercial for lunchables to unlock one of the cars, I'm probably not going to buy it for them.

But if a company can deliver ads without screwing up gameplay, I don't think I'd have a problem with it. Somone mentioned billboards in GTA3 already, though I think the whole GTA series is too controversial for most major companies. When I play UT2004, the game throws up a static screen every time the level changes, and I have to stare at it for 10-15 seconds. There are only about six different screens, and they old pretty quick. If the publishers wanted to toss some advertisements up there instead, I wouldn't mind... heck, I might even welcome it.

And contrary to some what people are saying, it is quite possible that in-game advertising could lead to reduced game prices. If advertising becomes a major revenue stream for game companies, then it would make sense for them to reduce their prices to get more viewers for their ads. That might make games with advertising a little cheaper then those without, at least for the short haul. We might see more patches, bonus packs, and expansion sets for popular games... buying ad space in a free Doom3 expansion set would almost be the gaming equivilant of buying commercial time in the Super Bowl.

Re:consoles and freeware

[bigman2003]

And in a big grand circle...

Xbox is the 'official console' of World Cup 2006.

Demo versions...

[hot_Karls_bad_cavern]

...should soon be rife with this sort of thing. Want to play the game? For free? Well, here's some ads to enjoy in the mean time. Might bug some folks, but if the game is really that good, hell, i'll buy...if the ads are taken out of the pay-version.

Well...

[CountBrass]

If it's unobtrusive or, even better, adds to the game then all well and good. If it jars or is too blatant then back goes the game to the store.

I would compare the appearance of Omega watches and Aston-Martins in James Bond and Starbucks in Shrek (which I think was all well done) with the appearance of Audi in I,Robot and BMW in James Bond: both of which I felt jarred and reduced my enjoyment of the film.

discount?

[bodrell]

They damn-well better give a discount, for subjecting paying customers to unsolicited ads.

Ads on TV I can mute, but I can't stand ads in the movies, when you've already paid high dollar for a ticket, then while you're a captive audience they blast Coke/Blockbuster/Body Fantasies ads at you.

Arrgh.

This isn't terribly new

[stromthurman]

I remember playing text adventure games on a Commodore Vic 20 where you'd find leaflets and reading them presented you with an ad for another game by the company. Granted, this wasn't an unrelated company looking for product placement, but it was still advertising within the game.

Advertising is a cancer on free speech.

[rokzy]

Just like porn, except whereas some people actually like porn, no-one likes advertising.

I will resist any attempts to force advertising on me e.g. Adblock, and if my attempts fail I will just turn away entirely.

Thankfully I'm an academic and don't even have to deal with billboards.

A single non-intrusive, correctly targeted and well implemented advert is a million times more effective for legal businesses than a million expensive "let's ruin another part of your day with offensive crap" campaigns.

Note to advertisers

[YrWrstNtmr]

Keep your dickbeaters out of my bitstream.

Ads, especially billboards, in an urban driving game or FPS, are kind of OK. For realism, the billboards have to be there anyway. Make 'em realistic, and if the publisher can get a kickback from Pepsi (theoretically lowering the price of the game - - HA!, but I digress), well and good.

But reading what I'm going past, and phoning that info home? Gimme a break.

Pretty soon, your next upgrade patch will include not fixes for the actual game, but new ads. "Our new sponsor is now Coca-Cola. Your gaming experience has been enhanced to reflect this exciting new addition to our corporate team!"

So what is new?

[frankthechicken]

Games have been trying to emulate movies for years, in the false idea that since both are visual entertainment, they should both be approached in similar ways.

Having to interact with an advert in order to progress, I can see as being a very infuriating premise, unless it is done in a clever way.

Movie promotions you can generally ignore, and let them pass you by, as they are simply passive images, game promotions I can see as being more invasive, and less avoidable.

EA Sports

[slungsolow]

Has been throwing in outside advertisers for some time. From what I can remember, the music that used in the latest version of their wonderful madden games was provided in a fashion similar to "payola" or pay for play...

To be honest, this doesn't actually bother me because the advertisements within the game take place while the action is still going on. Whether is the "Nokia Sugar Bowl" within NCAA 2005 or the "Gillette Half Time Report" in various other games.

Its completely unobtrusive and works well with the game. I'd go ahead and say that it provides a kind of realism to the whole experience.

I got two words for you all

[msaulters]

Jennifer Government.

Read it. It will happen (or something like it). It IS happening. Futurama was NOT at all wrong when it depicted advertisers beaming their crap into people's brains while they dreamed. Every successful marketing/sales droid I know would have zero second thoughts about anything which can increase revenue. Among those people, there are no morals. I mean, Pepsi has already tried to pollute the night sky. Pizza Hut is slapping their logo on the side of spaceships. This has been going on for years. There's nowhere they won't try to go.

taking advantage of a captive audience

[SethJohnson]

Yes, ads have been in video games for some time. Tony Hawk Underground, for example, contained McDonalds storefronts as paid product placement.

This type of advertising is awful. It does not add value to the consumer's experience. It takes advantage of the captive audience. It's no different than movie theaters showing commercials for shoes before a movie.

Your example of ads supporting freeware is an illustration of how advertising has traditionally worked- it pays for a service to be provided to the consumer. Think broadcast television. Ads in non-freeware software represent a money-grab by the publisher.

How do we resist this trend? Contact advertisers who use this medium and let them know that they are intruding on your personal space with their advertising. Let them know that their ad did not improve the entertainment value of the game in any way. It just created more profits for the publisher and you disapprove. Tell them that as a result you will refuse to use their product as long as they continue this practice.

Resistance is not futile. When the marketers behind the Spiderman II movie tried to put web logos on major league bases, sports fans balked and the studio scrapped the plan. Consumers must voice their disapproval if they are going to combat this deluge of advertising.

Question about this type of advertising?

[BadluckShleprock]

Does the ban on Tobacco advertising on television and radio cover video games as well? Since NASCAR and other sports series are trying to avoid the potential millions of dollars in tobacco advertising money, how long will it be before Duke Nukem stops his bloodfest to enjoy the fresh taste of a cool Laramie cigarette?

Before anyone comments on it, I know that one of the reasons NASCAR switched from Winston to Nextel partially because the poor, poor tobacco companies lost so much money to the swine lawyers in one of the biggest tort cases in history. Combined with the restrictions that the U.S. (not to mention the European Union) put on tobacco advertising on television, many sports have been forced to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

No no

[superpulpsicle]

Nah. Those are the old days where they advertise products that exist.

Look at Doom III, they have a game called "Super Turkey Turbo Puncher". When this game gets released for real, it'll be a smash hit automatically. I can't wait to punch that turkey for 500 pt.

Re:Billboards are fine with me.

[okayplayer]

We/they would never get rid of them... I love my dormatron shirt... The real GTAIII fans notice it and still stop me on the street.

Recent Experiences

[Nurgled]

The other day I visited my local cinema with some friends to watch I, Robot. We went to the pub for a drink first and after queueing and my friends buying expensive food products we got in to the theatre proper about 35 minutes after the billed start time, expecting to have missed the start. We were quite shocked (and, on that particular occasion, relieved) to find that we arrived in time to see the last preview trailer as well as the "don't let mobile phones ruin your movie" and the "Love Movies? Hate Piracy!" (Aarr!) stuff.

That's 40 minutes of junk before the film starts! Normally I don't notice the length of time because I'm chatting to my friends during this time. The ticket cost five pounds (roughly 9 US Dollars) and then once the film finally started the main character kept going on about his basketball shoes, which were of a brand I've never heard of and thus promptly forgot. The blatant nature of that product-placement was actually quite amusing, which was probably what they were going for.