Google Brings Ads To Games, Game Ads To YouTube

Reuters reports that YouTube will be partnering with Amazon and iTunes to provide the ability to purchase games and songs that are in or related to YouTube's hosted videos. For example, watching footage from Spore will bring up a link to purchase the actual game through Amazon. The sales revenue will be shared. In related news, Google has launched a public beta for their in-game advertising software based on Adsense. "Google is initially targeting the sweet spot for its technology: games based in Adobe's Flash platform and which run in a web browser with no download. ... [Christian Oestlien, senior product manager at Google] said that Google's advertisers can use the software to insert ads into games or videos for YouTube, making the ads more versatile. Developers of games can use Flash software development kits to designate the points in a game that make an 'ad request.'"

Comments

Ads in Games

[MosesJones]

Back in 1999 myself and some friends actually looked at creating a networked gaming infrastructure company, not creating games but focusing on the bit that (back then) games companies really sucked at, the actual software infrastructure required for distributed games. One of the things we proposed in there was the ability to serve targeted advertisements into games.

Trouble was in 1999 that everyone wanted to fund .coms and advertising revenue was just about eyeballs so targeting wasn't required apparently.

Expect this to very quickly go from Flash games into any game that connects to the internet, its a great new revenue stream for companies.

Re:Ads in Games

[eldavojohn]

Expect this to very quickly go from Flash games into any game that connects to the internet, its a great new revenue stream for companies.

Why does it have to connect to the internet?

Isn't Burger King releasing games funded entirely by Burger King with Burger King themes in them? (Did I mention Burger King?)

When I was tiny and we had our first x86 machine, I recall receiving a free 7-up game from the local supermarket that was a 3.5 diskette. You played spot, the 7-up mascot in an Othello rip off against another person next to you or the computer. Is this any different?

Would I be shocked to see ad funded games hitting the shelves? Nope. I wouldn't be surprised to see free discs & downloads of games where a car company makes a racing game or a soda company makes a mario party-ish game ...

I'm not too hip on this idea though, the last thing I want is more advertisement in my life. They seem like a distraction & waste of time. But since they fund a lot of what I do for entertainment, they're here to stay!

Re:Ads in Games

[MosesJones]

Its not about add funded games its about using games to sell targeted advertisements. All of those billboards in sports games and the "realistic" FPS games, perfect for slapping on an ad targeted just at YOU. Others in the game will see different adverts on exactly the same space.

Advertiser funded is old hat, this is about turning games into virtual billboard environments

Don't ruin the immersion

[Coopjust]

Ads actually fit pretty well in some games. I saw ads for the movie Ocean's 13 in the game Crackdown. Cities have billboards, and they weren't an unrealistic amount.

However, I have a breaking point. When Sony Online Entertainment put Jeep ads in Planetside (an alternate galaxy futuristic MMO FPS), it was my breaking point and I quit my subscription. I didn't buy Battlefield 2142 for the same reason: the ads ruined the gameplay immersion.

Ads are OK if they fit into the environment. Otherwise, leave them out. I would rather pay $10 additional to not have gameplay tarnished by ads that stick out like a sore thumb.

Re:Don't ruin the immersion

[geobeck]

You can fit a Burger King add into Iron Man and play it off as a quirky character moment, but you can't really shill for, well, anything in something like The Hobbit.

"Bilbo! Don't sit on the verge like a lump; we must make haste!"
"I'm sorry, Gandalf, but my poor feet aren't meant for such a long journey outside the Shire."
"When my feet ache from a long day's journey, I find relief in Gold Bond medicated powder..."

Works for me. :D

Re:Don't ruin the immersion

[Ender77]

No they don't. I can't speak for all gamers, but I go into games to GET AWAY FROM REALITY, not to have it thrown in my face. Ads will KILL innovation in games, instead of creating a few original (scifi/fantasy) gems, we will get nothing but grand theft auto generic clones where EVERYTHING happens in modern city/environment so game companies (like fraktard EA) can get ad revenue.

Could be ok

[I.M.O.G.]

I would like to see it done right. Seeing as how google really took advertising away from the banner ad approach with the dominance of their contextual text ads, perhaps they will get this in-game advertising right.

What is right?

1) Don't interrupt me. Really. Figure out how to work it in, but not weigh it down or intrude.
2) Make it useful. I don't care for how it looks cheesy when you go to a vending machine in a game and all it has is fake product garbage. Normal advertising you encounter daily, like vending machines, is unobtrusive but also raises brand awareness while it provides some realism to the game.
3) Again, don't interrupt me. Stay out of the way, and a whole industry won't crop up around you trying to remove your ad content. (popup blockers)

Bottom line, I don't think ads coming into games is that bad of a thing, but they have to be done tastefully and not detract from the title your playing.

games to ads?

[gEvil (beta)]

I was hoping they'd bring games to ads. And then for some reason I felt like punching a monkey.

DRM 1 Star Mob

[Wellington Grey]

For example, watching footage from Spore will bring up a link to purchase the actual game through Amazon

Ouch. Amazon might not be the best place to try and sell spore...

-Grey

Ads and MMOs

[Wiarumas]

Hey, this reminds me of one of the conversations me and one of my old High School friends once had. The idea was to have people buy the game (MMO) flat out. Then, either pay a monthly fee that would be ad free or play for free with ads here and there. I'm sure there are people out there that would LOVE to play WoW for free by having to deal with ads during login and plastered all over the capital cities... and I'm sure there are some that won't. Either way, I'd say its a plausible market especially in the MMO universe.

As Seen in World of Warcraft... SPIDER EGGS

[mfh]

EXT. Stonetalon Mountains (North West of Orgrimmar)

ENTER: Mackror the Mighty Orc Huntar

Mackror (yells): "I HAS CAPTURED 9/15 SPIDAR DEEPMOSS EGGS!!! FEW MORE TO GO!!!"

[ENTER: Homing Pigeon]

(makes pigeon crap on Mackror, sputters around... and lands on Macror's shoulder)

Mackror: "ARGH WAT! A NOTE!" (reads note)

"AIG Insurrance of Ogrimmar!!!! HAS GOLD. Invest to protect your new QUEST ITEM: DEEPMOSS SPIDER EGGS from decay and theft. Insure your home with the most ROCK SOLID insurance company in all Kalimdor!! We would never need to be bailed out like other institutions."

Mackror: "ARGH NO!!! LIARS!!!!!" (eats bird)

Google's too big

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm finding another search engine. I know it sounds like an over reaction- but the way I figure it, the more funding google gets the more money it has to inject into tracking us and injecting ads into every possible place. I understand that whatever engine I use they're gonna spend money on trying to sell me something, or make something I will buy in the future- but I'd prefer to give my views to someone spending their money on something else. Naturally it's not gonna be microsoft- but its certainly not going to be google.
The question is: is it too late?
Anyone who uses mozilla uses google, google is now a VERB, they own youtube, and they serve ads on virtually every web page. On top of that, they're getting a base of users for their browser AND they have a suite of office applications.

People started saying when is too much a long time ago, well I think now.

Revenue shared between WHO?

[cliffski]

"The revenue will be shared"

between amazon and google. GREAT!!!!
then what's left will be given to the publisher who will make some deductions then give a small chunk to the developer.

Enough of this crap.

If you like a game, ANY game, then do the games industry a favour, and CUT OUT THE MIDDLEMAN. Many of the games on sale through online stores are also sold direct from the developer. If they offer that as an option, please take it. The developer will get between 2 and five times as much money from the sale. And you KNOW they got paid.

Middlemen are making more money from gaming than the developers who create them. This kind of bullshit is getting worse and worse.