MTV to Invest Over $500 Million in Video Games

Wowzer writes to mention that MTV is planning to invest over $500 million in video games over the next two years. In addition to incorporating games into all new programming plans, MTV is also seeking "ways to link their upcoming game Rock Band to its traditional cable networks and Web properties. But they are fearful of alienating players by cramming TV and other content into the game."

Comments

MTV is crap

[Jaysyn]

So they couldn't let well enough alone by making music suck, they have to make videe games suck too? I wonder if they'll be better at it than EA?

O rly?

[EveryNickIsTaken]

"But they are fearful of alienating players by cramming TV and other content into the game." Why? They weren't fearful of alienating fans of music by cramming crap onto their network...

Ugh

[Aneurysm]

I get enough advertising and product placement thrown at me in any given day. It's in all new films, most TV channels are 20% advertising, and most magazines are probably a similar amount. Games were until recently a safe haven.

Not saying that they will definitely fill their games with advertising and weakly structure a plot around it, but I got a pretty good idea that they will....

Re:Ugh

[ThinkWeak]

Seriously? Maybe your definition of advertising and product placement is different than mine, but it's been in our video games for quite some time now. An easy example is the Tony Hawk series. You buy skateboards with various logos (from skateboard manufacturers) which adds to the "realism" of the game, but it's product placement all the same.

Basically ANY game that touches on ANY aspect of reality will have some advertising or product placement in it. If you've watched any of the trailers for Rock Band, you will see that you dress up your avatar in any number of clothes (with brand name labels) and will probably buy instruments with manufacturer designations on them. This is nothing new, and if everything was fictional you would hear people complaining about how lame it is that you have to buy some made-up brand instrument or Gucci knock-off shirt.

I agree that MTV has diluted into nothing more than commercials and lame reality shows, but they aren't going to get into video games and just make it a long drawn-out Geico commercial. They'll more than likely add more "realism" to the game and sell advertising and product space to clothing manufacturers, product manufacturers, and things of that nature to bring "real life" into the video game world.

If you think games are still a safe haven, then you won't really notice a difference.

Re:Today's post brought to you by the letter "meh"

[solios]

The M stands for Money.

As in, Advertising.

Re:Seriously.

[Hijacked Public]

And those who came before you were complaining that stupid Music Television was wrecking their stupid channel with stupid cartoons. They just wanted music videos.