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In-Game Advertising Coming to Anarchy Online
Swedish company Funcom has signed a deal with Massive, Inc to stream advertising into public areas of Rubi-Ka, the online world within Anarchy Online. Gamespot has the story. The ads are likely a direct result of the recent subscription free business model that the company has adopted for new players. From the article: "As consumers spends less time watching television and more time playing games (as indicated by numerous studies, including one from Nielsen), the game industry is turning its attention to understanding the potential to drive additional revenue from in-game advertising." Are all massive games going to be moving in this direction, or the direction that Guild Wars will take?
In fact it's even worse! "New York City-based Massive Inc" has deals with "eight game publishers, including Ubisoft, Atari, and Vivendi Universal" because "We are sure advertisers will cherish this revolutionary new opportunity to reach the extremely valuable 18-34 demographic...[and] we know that most gamers want in-game advertisement to heighten the sense of realism."
Fuck you massive, the last thing I want is that kind of realism. This will only harm originality. Imagine the execs with this:
Game Designer: I got a great new idea - it's set in a bizzare fantasy world/during the great fire of london/victorian times/Ancient Rome/Space (etc) and ...
Exec: Wait! How can we put pepsi/coke/generic generation-x product adverts in that! We'll lose vast amount of revenue!
Game Designer: Hmmm. We could make another game where you drive a generic car around a city at night past bill-boards? We could add a cutting edge musak to it? They'll pay for the exposure these days.
Exec: I love it! But we need more titties...