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Adverts Coming To Xbox 360 Achievements
Joystiq reports that the charming sports custom of having game elements sponsored by a corporation or product will now be coming to Xbox Live Achievements. "A quick skim down the list of achievements for EA's upcoming NCAA 08 Football shows sponsored goals such as the 'Old Spice Red Zone Perfection' and 'Pontiac 4th Quarter Comeback.' Each achievement is accompanied by a logo for the company in the achievement's image. We can only imagine the possibilities for future Xbox 360 games. Halo Around the Collar, sponsored by Tide? Mass Effect sponsored by the Axe Effect? Grand Theft Auto IV's Bounty Beatdown (great for sopping up blood spills)? The possibilities are endless." One would hope this will stay restricted to sports games.
The Tetley. Better teabag, better tea.
One would hope this will stay restricted to sports games.
There's money to be made in in-game advertisement, so you'll be seeing this a lot more.
"In case of emergency, break glass. Scream. Bleed to death."
EA Sports has already done this with Fight Night Round 3: Burger King, Dodge, Everlast, Under Armour, three different ESPN achievements, and the ubiquitous EA Sports achievement.
I've purchased more games over the years that I care to count and I've enjoyed most of the ones that I've purchased. For the most part, cost was never a big factor in purchasing games, but with the increased costs of games this most recent generation, I've been more leerly towards purchasing titles without doing a good amount of research into them first.
Similarly, I used to have a subscription to Xbox Live but haven't played on it in a very long while. It was a fairly good service in and of itself (most of the shortcomings deal more with the people who use it than with the technical details of the service) and not really all that bad of a deal for the roughly four dollars a month that it cost. At the time it was completely free of adertisements or anything else designed to get me to fork out more cash.
However, now that there seems to be a store selling virtuals goods and other things as well as increased advertisement both online and in the games themselves, will part of the money earned by the companies who produce these games and host the online system be used to offset some of the cost that I pay for these games and services? However, if I'm cruising around in my "Built Ford Tough" Warthog in Halo 3 and then looking over the stats in the post-match Pepsi rundown, I'd like to pay a little less than the full price. If you're going to subject me to crap advertising that I'd like to escape and expect to charge me just so that I can be subjected to it, I'm not going to spend $60 on your game or $50 on your online service.
The fact that they are injecting even more advertising in their games comes as no surprise. Hell, if Microsoft Games started making their published games support ads, that would be surprising. Even more so if Nintendo started doing it. EA is just like that...
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
If they really wanted to make an impact and get advertising dollars, why not have sponsors for the nickle and dime downloads they offer in marketplace, things like backgounds, skins, etc. Cars for Forza sponsored by the car companies, new outfits for Hitman maybe as absurd as a burger king uniform. Everyone likes free and sponsored content would allow more people would see it and pay attention to it than an icon next to someone elses achievements. Seriously who over the age of 18 really gives a flip about achievements anyway? Do people actually take the time to browse other peoples achievements? Assuming 10% (thats probably very generous) do how many actually take time to read them? So who exactly are they advertising to?
The visual pollution of advertising is continuing to spread to every corner our eyes could possibly rest at. Now, even the place I go to relax and ESCAPE is going to start bombarding me with ads. In game "product placement", blatant ads in the console, and more. Just great. Movies have been getting worse and worse for this- in the movie and big ones before the film.
Many products I buy come plastered with stickers for extra services or features. I pick them off when I can. Then once you step out side it's everywhere.
I can tell you a big reason why DVD sales of TV shows are so popular. No ads.
Many years ago, ads on TV and even shows named after products were getting out of control. There was a big public out-cry and things were toned down. I wonder how long until another such outcry happens again.
It's such a blight on the outdoor world and on my free time.