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Publishers Detail Specific In-Game Ad Plans For Future Games
MTV's Multiplayer Blog recaps a recent event held by Massive Inc., a subsidiary of Microsoft, during which game publishers put forth specific ideas on what types of in-game advertising players will and won't be seeing in the near future. The examples varied in how interactive and intrusive they were, from name-brand bottled water power-ups to destructible virtual billboards to taking advantage of sports game locker rooms for product placement. They did claim they would restrain themselves from blatant advertisements that would ruin immersion in fantasy games. Blizzard partnered with Massive to bring ads to Battle.net, but don't expect to see ads in the associated games.
My dilznick!
Considering the cost of video games, and the fact that the ads are not intrusive, It seems like a fair idea. I assume it will be a bit annoying, but if it fits into the game it should be fine. The proposed ideas ideas don't seem to be that obstructive,they are not proposing cut-scenes chocked filled with advertisements.
>>...what types of in-game advertising players will and won't be seeing in the near future
Hey, game publishers, let me tell you what types of in-game advertising I'll be seeing in the near future: NONE! Know how I know? because I WON'T BE BUYING YOUR PRODUCTS! Seriously. It's the reason I quit watching television several years ago: it was bad enough that the quality of the shows was weak, but the encroachment of pervasive, obvious product placement and obnoxious on-screen banners thoroughly ruined the experience.
I play games to escape from this garbage, not to endorse it. I'm not interested in your advertising, and as of late I'm barely interested in your cookie-cutter games that are big on cost & hardware requirements and poor for overall entertainment value. You're walking a fine line, already.
What I'm saying is, you need to focus on the basics -- creating games that are fun and deliver good value -- rather than considering my eyeballs some sort of resource that you get to exploit.
Pissing off your customer base is not the road to financial success. But what do I know? I'm only the person who used to buy your products. And I suspect there are many, many more people who share my sentiments.
Then they had better be careful they check out various patents that might already cover this.
Otherwise they might be in for some nasty surprises.
Go ahead, make pirated versions even Better Than Original. If you can flip a JNE to JE and bypass protection, it should be no problem to just jump over the "render ads to screen" or "download ads from server and save to file" function.
True, modern DRM is a bit more difficult than flipping JNE to JE, but that just goes in the favor of the pirates; the ad-download function can't be more difficult than the DRM, and they're already quite able to remove the DRM... So, yeah, publishers, go ahead and compete yourself out of the market.
They have been for awhile now.
Reminds me of my cable box. Over the life of this thing I'll may than pay for it outright. I'm also paying a ridiculous amount per month for service. Yet there on the bottom of the "guide" is an advertisement that takes up not one, but two slots that could otherwise be used for more guide information. Worse, THE CURSOR ACTUALLY STOPS THERE like I'm going to intentionally click on the stupid thing.
I didn't mind the in-game Axe Body Spray ads playing on the video screens in common areas of Anarchy Online. Until I heard the same Axe ad playing over and over again... I hated it... I was actually hoping for new ads.
If more vendors had jumped into the advertising and maybe tried a few clever/entertaining ideas I'd have no problem with it.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
I do not personally condone pirating. Yes, I know, pirating is rampant, easy, free, and also .... stealing.
Blah blah DRM, SecUreRoM, xYzCRPA...
If you seriously believe that the game makers and other software developers will continue to thrive in a highly manipulative market, (with rampant pirating) you are crazy. This will ultimately only hurt the market.
This has been a great revenue model for all sorts of really great free products and software! (Yeah! You didn't steal itEXCLAMATIONPOINT).
I like using open software; as well as other great software that is FREE. And watching TV and that YouTube, oh and Hulu! BBC.com and CNN kinda cool, reporters and shit.
You mean Duke Nuke 'Em smokes Camels and drives an H3 Hummer? I could deal with that but having him tank up on Zima really ruined the game experience for me.
In Battlefield 2142 they put ingame adverts in, but they actually didn't detract from the game - they were simply on billboards in urban settings, and made the place seem MORE real that adverts for "Generic Corporation". However, it needs to be done very carefully to avoid ruining the game's atmosphere, and I do agree that ingame adverts should be recognised in an appropriate discount on the game itself.
Pirates are important for maintaining a natural balance and fighting global warming.
I bet you are one of those pajama-wearing-ninja-lovers too.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
In most single-player games in-game advertisement is absolutely silly. Likewise in subscription-supported online games - you pay to use the servers, you deserve to be free of ads. But what about those games that are NOT subscription supported and have an online component, like say Diablo 2? Or any other game where the company runs their own servers free-to-play? They have to pay for that somehow, and I seriously doubt that $50-60 you spend on a game will last for as long as, say, Blizzard's battle.net has. If done right, the ads won't be all that noticeable, or won't be in the actual game at all (similar to how battle.net has them in the chat screens, but doesn't have them in game). In this case, I would have no problem buying such a game. However, in the event that they are horribly out of place and serve only to lessen the value of the game, I'll be the first to tell them where to stick their ads.
I would think that a nascar game without ad's will be out of place maybe you can have fake ad's / ad's for other games in it but real ad's will fit in other sports are the same way.
I know this one's been around for awhile now. That steaming pile known as Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (not to be confused with Tactics) had Bawls in it, which were pretty much just health potions if I'm remembering correctly.
From wikipedia:
Brotherhood of Steel employed in-game advertisement in that Nuka-Cola bottles and even advertising billboards from the original series were replaced with Bawls Guarana bottles and signs.
Considering this is about Microsoft, I'm hoping this is limited to Xbox. =/ Not holding my breath though.
For sure though, any game with ads will not be getting my money. Last thing I need is to be playing MGS and have an ad for Viagra claiming to bring "New life to your Snake".
I will accept a game that has billboards with ads for Coca-Cola -- if and only if that same game, in the same play session, also contains billboards with ads for Pepsi.
I guess that means you won't play any simulations of professional sports. As I understand it, each sporting event has only one soft drink sponsor: usually either Coke, Pepsi, or DPSU. Nor will you play theme park simulators in the vein of Sim Theme Park or Roller Coaster Tycoon, as each amusement park also has one soft drink sponsor (e.g. Coke for Indiana Beach or Pepsi for Cedar Point).
Did they also detail the new demographic of their user base? Cause it sure as hell won't be me.
The reason the GTA series was unable to obtain a license to model the games cars and name them after real world cars was because none of the car manufacturers wanted to see their car associated with not just violence....but they refused to allow an in game model of their be susceptible to any sort of damage. This has been documented in the past before not mostly with the GTA franchise, but with every racing franchise in history.
It's the reason why in the Gran Turismo (racing series on SONY platforms) they have a complete licenses to use exact replicas of hundreds of real life cars from dozens of competing auto companies. It's because the GT producers and developers SIGNED a contract stating that no cars could be damaged in the game by the player. That's why in GT you can ram cars into walls, drive 130 MPH head on into another car, and nothing happens to the car or the player. This is all intentional in order to obtain the license to use the car brand names.
This goes even further with sports games. Nothing controversial can ever be allowed in sports game that use the official Major League Baseball, NFL, NBA, etc. license. No players can get kicked off the team for shooting themselves in the leg (Plaxico) or hosting an illegal dog fighting ring (Vick) or beating their wives (B. Myers) or using steroids (half of MLB).
Metal Gear Solid 4 had an item called 'Playboy' that you could use to distract enemy soldiers with who would read the magazine instead of fighting you. In game advertisement? Sure. Distracting? Not really. Because it's a natural element to the game, magazines have been in MGS before.
Would seeing COCA COLA and PEPSI banners inside the sports stadiums of sporting games really put people off this badly that they would stop playing games? I wouldn't think so. Most people who play sports games watch sports, and sports have the most advertisements per minute of show than any other television genre.
But...would I want to see giant banners for PEPSI or DORITOS in GTA4, or Fallout 3? No. Because they would seem so out of place and would detract very much from the game.
But those advertisements could be REMOVED on the PC versions. Don't like that PEPSI ad? Replace it with a picture of your girlfriend by substituting some texture or .img files in the director the game is in. Or create an advertisement free mod of the game. I'm sure it would be the most popular mod. Consoles gamers (I am one, and a PC gamer) will get stuck with commercials but PC gamers hopefully can just MOD advertisements right out of most games.
Major Hollywood movie: Tens of thousands of people involved, from A-list stars to catering services. $100++ Million budget, but sells for $15 at Walmart/Target.
Top-level music act: Unless it's a yearlong Michael Jackson reservation in a studio, a top CD costs a hundred thousand $$s to create, including studio time, musicians, catering, etc. Total people? Less than a hundred. Maybe just a couple dozen. Sells for $10-$15 at Walmart/Target.
A-title video game. A hundred people involved, tops. single-digit million dollar budget, tops. Sells for $40-$60 at Walmart/Target.
It's not about what it costs to make, it's about charging what the market will bear, and always trying to squeeze a bit more out of the consumer. And don't forget cross-marketing. (T-shirts, movie tie-ins, books, lunchboxes, McDonald's toys, etc.)
You were saying?
...Adblock isn't just for firefox anymore. We'd all love you even more than we do already if we could get an adblocker for these games along with our No-CD patches.
If you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention.
Does this mean I must now carry a trailing banner with my Piper Cub in Flight Simulator?
I actively pay attention to in-game ads. I then go out of my way not to buy products from these companies. Ergo, the more money a company pays for advertising, the less profit they'll generate from me.
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
there's already tons of in-game advertising with most current game titles. it may seem simple to some, but rock band uses fender guitars [and their subsidiaries, like jackson and gretsch] and I think ludwig drums] for the most part. guitar hero uses gibson based materials.
sports games use things like 'the gatorade replay', or the 'ford player of the game' or whatever. soundtracks are littered with artists that various labels have pushed and you usually get some sort of MTV music video-esque blurb at the bottom saying the artist, the album, and song.
it's been around for a long time. they're just talking about it more now and seeing if they can do what they did in movies and translate it to games, according to TFA.