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Google Acquires In-Game Advertising Company
Firmafest writes "According to Red Herring Google has purchased an in-game advertising company called Adscape for $23 million. Is this the next logical step to delivering ads where there's sufficient potential buyers? Or is it simply a response to Microsoft acquiring a similar company?"
In game advertising is one of those things that has to be done really subtly to avoid pissing off the player. If anyone can do it right its Google.
Hopefully this means we won't have intrusive and loud ads added to our games.
Now I have to watch ads every 15 minutes of raid time. What a PITA. Isn't my subscription fee enough revenue?
"Please describe the scientific nature of the 'whammy'" - Agent Scully
Awesome.. now I can see a "Google Sponsored Link" to buy a real AK-47 while playing Grand Theft Auto...
The only type of in-game advertising I like is advertising for products in reality simulators, such as car sims. If I'm racing around in a hot car, I expect to see billboards for products. I think such advertising enhances the immersion effect. As long as game developers do not go overboard with in-game advertising by only placing it in natural, reality-based settings where one would expect to see them, I don't have a problem.
Part of the hardcore faithful who believed in Apple long before it was cool again to do so
Yeah, ads in games... http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/19
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AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH Google is following me everywhere. No place to run, no place to hide.
Google could generate an explosion in small software shops writing cute little games to get "page" views. Google AdSense has probably done more to encourage the growth in small web sites than anything else the last few years.
I'll call it Freeware 2.0.
I think this sucks.
I hate advertising!
All kinds of advertising, to they have to intrude on me everywhere?
Cant they just leave me alone and respect that I do not want advertisement, their offers or buy anything?
The only advertisements in a game that is okay with me are purely and strictly fictional advertisements about fictional products from a fictional company.
I can see like in a RPG, if there is a flyer on the ground, and it you can pick it up and its a ad to by swords in real life, now that would be cool
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Part of the reason that this works, obviously, is that auto racing is replete with ads already, plastered all over the cars or in various spots around the track. Of course, nearly all of these advertisers are major companies or household names. If Google starts piping ads into an online racing game similar to the fly-by-night cruft you sometimes get with AdSense, I can easily see the disgust levels rising enough to turn off auto racing fans who are already strongly conditioned toward seeing advertising.
I think beyond typical locations for advertising like in game billboards and such, the real opening is similar to what Hollywood has been using for years: the thousands of products used by characters in their daily lives. Auction off the label on what would otherwise be generically named products. Game companies are always going for licenses; these licenses would seem to be optimal since they're paid to use the logos rather than paying for the privledge.
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
Uh, show me a race track without ads. Even in rallies, which are done on the street, they roll out the advertising.
And what do you know, just like any other sponsored event, it couldn't actually exist without the sponsors. Thus it's really quite reasonable to allow them to place their logo on the race track, which is pretty much everything they ever get (except sometimes the name of the race is always displayed with "sponsored by whoever" underneath it.) Whoopee.
Finally, since all the tracks have sponsor logos all over them, it would be incongruous to not have them in the game.
Now, if you're talking about billboard adverts downtown in a racing game, yes, I agree. It's horrible that we have these things all over the place cluttering up our world. But then, I find all untargeted advertising to be horribly offensive.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
... ads are perfectly alright with me. If it increases the immersion of the game to make it seem like a real world? All the better. And no, I wouldn't say I'm conditioned to seeing ads and thus feel they're alright. I dislike most of them because they tend to be irrelevant to whatever I'm viewing. Heck, I've clicked on interesting looking ads now and then myself. If it's an interesting product of course I'll click on the ad, that's what they're for. Chances are I won't buy anything and am there simply to find out about something I thought looked cool.
Personally? I hate the nameless/altered spellings of real-world businesses in games. It's just not conducive to immersion. And yes, I do notice these things, even while playing a fast paced FPS. I can't think of anything off of the top of my head however, as I haven't any games in a little while.
I agree with you, sad as it is some sports are grounded heavily in advertising, to the point where having *no ads* actually makes the game worse. I'm thinking Formula 1 here, but yeah most real life sports games.
Not sure if that is the type of in-game advertising google are getting into though. It's probably something more generic.
"all broken things dream of repair" - chris letcher
If in-game ads become popular I can see them influencing game design. We will see more "real-world" settings where ads make sense, e.g. a cityscape with billboards full of ads. It's pretty hard to fit an advertisement for a modern product in a WW2 FPS or a fantasy RPG, if there is a big revenue stream from ads we will end up with less games in which ads don't make sense contextually.
I'm so sick of advertising. I'm coming close to wearing out my 'mute' button on my television remote from keeping myself from hearing a commercial for the 10th time in an hour-long program. I'm sick of silly little tunes and flashy pop-ups when visiting websites. I'm sick of seeing billboards with stupid themes designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator. To get back on topic, I was excited a few months ago for the release of Battlefield 2142, and had occasionally kept an eye on it through its development process. About a week before its release I read about the new in-game advertising that had to be running in order to play the game. (In my mind, this speaks to the knowledge that advertisers know how much their advertisements annoy people) I go to great lengths to keep popups off of my computer, and annoying scripts and flash-crap from running. Why would I go out and buy a game that does the same? Answer: I didn't, and I won't. I understand some people's viewpoint that it increases the 'immersive' quality of the game, but personally I don't think that the advertising has to be 'real-world' advertising to do that. If I saw an ad for Coca-Cola or Pepsi in a Final Fantasy game I'd be sorely disappointed. And I'm pretty damn sure that unless I win a 'millionaire for life' lottery I won't be cruising around in a Ferrari any time soon, so would the fact that I'm driving on 'Acme' tires rather than 'Goodyear' matter all that much, or is it the gameplay itself that draws one in? I guess the point I'm trying to make is that a game doesn't have to have real-life advertisements in order for it to be immersive. Done correctly I think that spoof ads are even more entertaining than the real ones. Who wouldn't want to see the Pillsbury doughboy skewered on a shish kabob stick just once? 'Hee-hee' indeed! To each their own, I suppose, but any videogame that forces more advertising on me is a game that I will refuse to buy and/or play. I'm voting with my wallet.
I agree that it's realistic. I am just less tolerant of advertising than you; I find it *all* to be horribly offensive.
The kind of 'Sponsorship' you mention is somewhat less offensive to me than other kinds, though.
I don't watch television anymore because I simply cannot stand the advertisements. There are ads running on screens in checkout ailses while shoppers stand in line at Walmart. Honestly, I was recently surprised with the realization that the entire rythm of a typical pro football game is so utterly regulated by the need to insert television advertising. For me it ruined the fun of spectating. It really baffles me how people put up with it. I won't pay money for that sort of shit in my games. It made me stop watching television, it would honestly make me stop playing games. "Do no evil" my ass. This sort of thing has no positive side effect for the consumers of the games. You think games will get any cheaper with ads? You still pay for cable don't you...
There is that curious phrase again. "Targetted" advertising indeed. Frankly, if the aim of any advertising was ever sharp at all, wouldn't certain people just get product/bill silently shipped to them while the rest of us were left peacefully alone. There is no such thing as targetted advertising, it's all about pissing in everyone's ear until some schmuck uses his wallet to block the spray.
Far more interesting than where Google will place those ads, is the point that for Google this is one more step towards being the most important ad company. Maybe I perceive Google as too strong, but what I believe could happen in the next few years is that Google will be more and more important for selling ads in many different media. Since the internet will also increase its importance, Google will gain power. Google tries to collect so many statistics in order to be able to deliver ads better that any other service, so in the future, a company that really wants to reach potential customers directly, may have no choice but to go to Google for placing those ads successfully.
The question is what Google will do at that point. Will they become lazy or will they still release new, free services to their customers and will they keep at least the privacy level they guarantee now?
The strength of a civilization is not measured by its ability to fight wars, but rather by its ability to prevent them.
If Google had bought first /.ers would all be "omg Microsoft = shameless copying, Google = innovation".
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
Did you ever read the (0 and plus rated) comments? I never saw one that claimed google was copying mickeysoft. Go away stupid ms fanb01.
you mean Adware 2.0, right ? Google trojans, great !
Just goes to prove that no matter how large or wealthy a company is, they will always end up chasing Microsoft's tail lights in one way or another.
I think Google can place ads in videogames. It would be interesting to see what Google does with it. Cindy Serridge Veremedia.com