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Take-Two Signs In-Game Ad Deal
Gamespot reports that publisher Take-Two Interactive has signed a deal with the Double Fusion company for in-game ads. The company has been signed on for somewhere around nine of titles in 2007 and 2008. From the article: "'With respect to dynamic ads, we can only serve dynamic ads as platforms authorize that,' Double Fusion CEO and president Jonathan Epstein told GameSpot. 'And right now, Sony and Nintendo, who have been very busy launching platforms, are still formulating their policies in that regard. So our arrangement is contingent on those platforms authorizing in-game advertising in the first place, and then authorizing Double Fusion as a vendor. We're hopeful that during the time of the deal... we'll see such authorizations and approvals.'"
As someone who once had the toe-curling job of implementing in-game ads for a game (shudder), I can 100% cast-iron pledge an assurance to you, that if you had ads on loading screens, the minimum duration of that loading screen would be hardcoded in the game and written explicitly into the advertising contract, regardless of what spec your PC was.
They would probably also want assurances that the art assets, sounds and code for displaying the ad was sufficiently encrypted to make it difficult to remove, AND contractually oblige the developer to automatically replace any such 'cracked' ads detected by any patches.
Yes, they really are that fucking evil.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
And game production costs ARE rising.
If game prices dropped, maybe I'd consider it. But really, they won't. Ever.
The problem with ingame advertising (or in movie advertising) is just when reality is starting to slip away someone opens a can of coke and you back in the world you were trying to escape from.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
And game production costs ARE rising.
The solution to that issue is not to compensate with in-game adds. The solution is to realise that the costs are rising because having shiny 3D and high definition and extremely realistic physics engine and so on is expensive.
Make a game that is just plain fun instead of making a vaguely interactive but very impressive demo, that's the solution.
Um, no, we do not all agree that ads in games are fine.
In a car racing game, it is comon to see adds along the side of the road in certain sections of a track. This is fine.
Um, no. I thoroughly enjoyed playing some of the older racing games (ie, Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, Hot Persuit 2, etc), because they involved driving around in nice looking cars and outside in interesting tracks/environments that have lots of interesting turns or shortcuts or whatever. I've never been willing to watch NASCAR or F1 because I find a car covered in ads to be horribly ugly, so I don't play NASCAR/F1-style racing games either. I don't like the way the cars look, and I don't like boring fixed racing tracks (gee, let's switch from an oval to a figure-8 with an overpass!) with billboards and crap festooned all over the place.
I won't be purchasing NFS: Underground 2, or Getaway, or Carbon, because of the inline ads and the game have shifted away from purchasing a car I like and racing it, and maybe tweaking it by buying a better engine or choosing the right gearbox-- to having to place stickers on your vehicle to "enhance your rep" and similar nonsense.
"The human race's favorite method for being in control of the facts is to ignore them." -Celia Green
The movie industry got greedy and started showing commercials for half an hour before shows. The effect? I started avoiding movies unless I really really wanted to see one. I'm probably not the only one. And now they are complaining of falling revenues. The quality of movies lately has a lot to do with it, but I think the inclusion of all these commercials in the theater also is having an effect.
I expect that if in-game advertising become prevalent, we'll see the same effect. I'll certainly avoid games that make me watch ads.
One correction - Pokémon was anything but toy based. The game came first.
Goo goo g'joob.