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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
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors - Plato
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.
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.'"
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
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.