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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.'"
You're muddling two different, and internally diverse parties (theatres, studios (and a host of distributors)) but the problem you point out is true. The television commercials played before the film starts is part of a bigger problem in the movie theatre business. As theatres consolidate and decisions shift further into the reaches of corporate money-manufacturing hive-minds, there's a loss of focus on the very real CULTURAL institution that movie theatres are. The goal isn't to run a successful theatre in the traditional respect, so much as it is to run the most profitable theatre possible. Profit is an important element of success, obviously. A successful theatre should be profitable, but it should also maintain the experience and the mystique that should come with experiencing a film in the cinema.
The idea of the most profitable theatre possible is the driving factor behind things like the TELEVISION ADS played before the trailers/films at some theatres. THIS DEMEANS THE EXPERIENCE OF THE CINEMA. In the drive for diversification and expansion of their revenue base, the inclusion of generic television advertising before films could be the noose around the neck of the industry.
Home theatre systems continue to get better, this is well acknowledged. DVDs are sometimes issued less than six months after an initial theatrical run. Not to mention the obvious implications of the Internet. Yet people still continue to the movies, and they will continue to do so for some time. If DVD releases were simultaneous with theatrical releases, some people would still go to see at least some portion of their movies at a theatre.
That is, as long as movie theatres get their act together and remember what they're supposed to be providing.
Hey guys, I'll hook you up: Nobody pays $10.25 to sit in your house and watch movies on your TV. Not even if you have fantastic cable. Start focusing on being successful theatres again. If that means losing out on the income from pre-show TV ads to maintain the aura of the silver screen, I'm sorry.
Please, someone have a heart. You ARE cheapening the experience with this and other such tactics. When that magic is gone, the biggest screens and the loudest speakers won't bring back the masses.
Movie theatre.. what's what? Oh, a building people went to for advertising and entertainment, way back..
[Wow, this is so fucking OT. Fuck you mods. Fuck you. Look at my fucking karma. Look at that sad-ass shit. Look at my comment history. Do I deserve this shit? Fuck no.]