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In-Game Adverts Could Reach $2 Billion?
Via 1up, a story on the Adweek site positing that in-game ads could reach $2 Billion by the end of the decade. The story discusses Massive, the streaming ad firm, and their success in reaching eyeballs. From the article: "Those customers include the majority of the major film and entertainment studios, according to Davis, as well as brands such as Coca-Cola, Subway, Honda, and Gillette. Davis said that Massive was benefiting from an 'overwhelming trend away from mass marketing' that is making the medium's men 18-34-dominated audience more attractive to more brands, even sometimes slow-moving packaged-goods advertisers."
Great! Now that the game developers/publishers are raking in a good amount of money, can they use that to offset my online gaming fee? Didn't think so...
This guy's the limit!
Soon there will be product placement. Coca-Cola +5 Long Sword?
"This raid dungeon brought to you by Bawls"
"This health pickup brought to you by Johnson & Johnson"
"Server update 1/1/20XX: The ingame auction house has been bought by Ebay Sotheby's"
Insert Sig Here
Video Games are going to be the new Cable TV.
Originally, you were paying for the service. Now you're paying for the service and the pleasure of recieving commercials.
In-game advertising for online games is a tricky business, because it's trivial to block the IP(s) any advertising is coming from. If it's coming directly from teh game server, users can always modify their client to not display it.
This drive to monetize everything is really irritating. I personally don't like to bombarded with ads everywhere I go online.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I will be able to cast a Great Fireball of Cocacola fury or somthing...
Let them remain blissfully unaware about hacks.They can try advertising everthign they like,not on my computer.
Even if i have to add a megabyte of new host file entries or write memory patches.Just an old flawed model.
In the next rpg, instead of shops selling potions, why not have this fantasy world be littered with wal-marts with Gatorades to replenish the characters? I won't stay at an inn, I'll stay at holiday inn.
heck, why ride chocobo's when the local Honda dealership is selling atv's on the cheap! No more casting haste, instead drink a star bucks coffee! No airships, but better southwest airships.
i wont use magic, i'll use industrial light and magic!
i don't care
I am curious who really started this disturbing trend? I agree with earlier posts that this is damaging to game-play, it kills fantasy realism. (Yes I did just say that.) Can you imagine buing an axe in WOW that happens to be formed from a pepsi symbol? How long until the character models and costumes in games look more like stock-racing drivers or their cars?
How long has this been happening though? How many games does this really affect? Does this go all the way back to Quake with Nine-Inch-Nails, or was 'advertising' done earlier?
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to govern any other" -John Ada
People stop buying games containing advertisements. licensed titles and product placement will happen, and that is about as far as I can support in any way and only then in games where it makes sense. Not clubbing a lvl 22 snow ettin while seeing ads for Quizno's new steak sub.
Just like the vocal outrage and refusal to buy games with Starforce DRM caused publishers to stop using it, the same can be done here. Advertising and the commercialization to Hollywood levels of gaming is the worst possible option.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
I don't see how they are going to generate any sales considering emails to adsales@massiveincorporated.com and info@massiveincorporated.com both bounce.
Your sig(k) has been stolen. There is a puff of smoke!
We've enjoyed a medium near enough free from advertising. And it is our duty to preserve this. If I pay £40 (and next gen £50) to buy a game, I buy the freedom from ads. You can put them in, but then you must make the game free. There is no middle ground. An XBOX 360 game full of ads won't cost less than some fantasy game that doesn't have them. If you think it will, I am sorry but you are fooling yourself. All it does is succeed in making genres that are not "advertising friendly" less financially viable.
Just because american TV lost the battle to product placement (as the UK might, if the EU stops product placement being illegal), that doesn't mean it's ok for games to lose too. Because this is what this is - Product Placement.
And most importantly I think it's fair to say most people who play games on slashdot want games to be seen as art. Want them to be acknowledged as a new , creative and meaningful media. And how can that happen if the people making the game have no fucking respect for their own creations.
To quote the late, great, Bill Hicks:
"Here's the deal, folks. You do a commercial - you're off the artistic roll call, forever. End of story. Okay? You're another whore at the captialist gang bang and if you do a commercial, there's a price on your head. Everything you say is suspect and every word that comes out of your mouth is now like a turd falling into my drink." - Bill Hicks
http://skeptobot.blogspot.com/ - A site for the Renaissance man and woman
About in-game advertising is that while some companies will definitly pay for advertising in games, quite a number will also force games to pay them to use their brands. For example, if you were building a racing game and wanted to make it realistic and use actual cars, Ferarri or Lamborghini could force you to pay them for the right to use their brand in the game. Very interesting.
Advertisers: Stay out of my fucking game.
Hmm... write my Congressman or start a petition drive. Decisions, decisions... Maybe both...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
In a game with a contemporary setting, in-game advertisements could increase realism. For example, soda machines are a staple background item in action games. A Pepsi or Coke machine would be more realistic than some brand that doesn't really exist. The key is not to say "all advertising is bad" or "anything goes", but to look at each situation and say "Does this enhance the experience or detract from it?".
... so long as it fits into the world. The best solution for all of this is to make more present day/post-apocalyptic MMO's. So, uhh, more post-apocalyptic games in general? Please? Fallout 3, come out soon?
because they will be full of ads anyway...
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
Advertising has been around for awhile. The Atari had some Kool Aid game and a few others, including the rare Dog Food Chuck Wagon game. The NES had a few also, YO! Noid, McKids. In the past most football games would make fake ads of their own company and the publisher, but they then started going others as well. As long as it doesnt distract and seem out of place, i dont care too much. But if they do it during a map load or start having links in the UI for the lastest Neo-Station-Wagon or toothpaste its gone too far.
I have always been a little mixed on this one. On one hand, you have the case that people have made. A modern game, with vending machiens showing fritos and Pepsi is probaly better than machines showing cornies and nasal blaster cola drinks. I have found some of the names are funny, but usually they are jaring. In Burnout, you have some real ads (axe, I think). They ADD to the experience. I really don't mind that all. I remember back in the Q2 days, a buddy found a coke texture, and put it on a billboard, because it looked right. Now, that is the positive. Of course, marketting people, to make a buck, will screw up a good thing. The latest version of Swat 4 and the latest expansion add "dynamic" ads. The first one, was the Hills have eyes... not TOO jarring, until you saw it on about 1/2 or more of the walls. Then, it became a MAJOR distraction. Then, you go to the other side, the next ad had William Shatner on the history channel. Seeing that poster everywhere, at a RAVE... IS completely jarring. This is an example of BAD advertising. I agree with others, as well. If ads make the publisher money, then I, as a consumer, should have to pay less. Say, free online gameplay in a MMORPG, and maybe 1/2 price for a game. I can handle that, for the level of ads there are right now. Look at what Burger King is doing. I don't have a problem with that $5 for a game, that features their product. Good for them. To me, the real issue with in-game advertising is this. How will it be used? If it helps the game out, put it in. If it detracts from the game, don't put it in, or if you do, give me a GOOD compelling pricebreak. I think that is where the middle ground for this issue should be.
I'm sure you'll be able to buy the ad free version of the game for an extra 20 bucks.
big business ads in games will spark a major jump in mind-reading technology. Im tired of getting up off the couch and walking 5 feet to order a pizza. Just send the thing to me dammit.
Ant
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