News Gaming adverts becoming a big business

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/03/24/gaming_adverts_big_business/

 

hmm interesting, things like roadside billboards such as those in nfsu2 make the game more believable but the airwaves gum thing in Chaos Theory is certainly not the way to go.

 

I couldn't help but laugh at the huge Airwaves blimp in Chaos Theory, completely took away from it all. The occasional Axe advert (an advert for an American product in my UK bought game!) on rooftop billboards didn't get on my nerves too much (except I kept dying by it).

Racing and sports games are fair enough though.

 

It was bound to happen eventually, theres plenty of examples of it in current and past games. It's a large open market and a very large platform, TBH im suprised it had not been done sooner, just look at the time and money people spend on computer games...

Yer it is kinda crappy but so long as the extra dosh is put back into developing games, its done tastefully and doesnt make my game take longer to load etc... then I can live with it

 

I dont mind/notice most advertising in current games.

I imagine most advertising companies will have common sense about placing which adverts in which games. just like websites, you wouldnt put an advert for tampons on a bob the builder website. so I am hoping that advertising agencies will put adverts of interest into appropriate games.

I definatly hope they DO NOT put adverts in MMORPG's that I pay a subscription for, our subscription pays for the service and development so tehre is no need(unless they are too greedy) to seek advertising, and in most MMORPG's modern advertising wouldnt fit in them.

I would say that advertising would work in games that are set in the present day or the future, or maybe the recent past. Definatly not on "other world" type games like star wars or something.

It might even spur some completly free MMORPG's paid for by advertising alone.

 

the thing that anoys the hell out of me with these things, even in NFS, is that we are paying for the game. in most situationjs online we pay for some services to remove adds from the sites. when you buy a book, do you want there to be adds on every ten pages. if they are collecting that much revenue from manufactures, there should be no reason that we still pay $50 for a game. they can try and say that it costs more now to make games then it did 10 years ago. i dont elive this. computers are cheeper then ever. when your a gone production company your already bringing in either free parts or being paid by nVidea to let people know what the game was made on. i fully belive in word of mouth advertising. i mean how many comercials for computer parts are there, but we already know about parts before they are even sold. so it not like any of us need comercials for this, why would we need it for anything else.

the comercials that confuse me the most are the ones for armed forces... who the hell doesnt know that the army exists.... i dont think they need to spend the 100,000 million or so they do spend on advertising a year.

 

They already do this in Anarchy Online infact the only sent out a questionaire the other day for users to find out what they thought about in-game adverts and brand awareness.

I much prefer in universe ingame adverts if you know what I mean. Adverts generated for the fictional companies inside the game.

Come on down to big Al's Meson depot now!

 

this is good in someways, maybe annoying in others

in game like GTA it would add some realism to city aspect of the games, you could be going down the high street jus like you would in normal life ans see big biil boards for nike, ford, bmw etc

splinter cell CT already had some subtle adverts in it, one level where you come in via the roof, you descend into a cubicle and the computers there run Athlon 64 screen savers.

 

I wouldent mind haveing adds in a game, if it was done in the "right" way.
Like instead of haveing a game like today where they tell you to meet them at McBurger, they just say McDonalds. I mean, why not just use real stores instead of makeing all theese fictional ones that sound exactly like the real ones.
Ofcourse this wouldent work in, lets say WoW or other fantacy games that arn't set in our world.

 

i don't mind products being in the game...
e.g in Grand theft Auto theres a billboard with 'Bold' washing powder, and theres people wearing nike clothes e.c.t.

...but watching adverts before playing would P*ss the hell out of me, i wouldn't stand for it intos annoy the hell out of me when i want to just play the f**king game.. now adverts that next level.

 

Product placement (like in the movies) wouldnt be a big issue, I would however dislike commercial TV style "ad breaks", where they are intrusive to the game.

 

If compter game advertising takes hold we could see developers choosing to remove all fees to attract a larger audience for the advertisments.

 

There's two times this has actually spoiled the mood of the game.

This first was planetside. After a long break from it I felt the urge to start playing again so filled up my subscription for the month and jumped back in, i was utterly disappointed/annoyed with the in-game ads. I'm paying a subscription to look at ads that probably generate more than the subscriptions? But I guess thats sony for you.

Then there's Enter the Matrix. Yea it was cool getting some of the story for the movies, and you'd think with the backing of the movies they wouldn't need in game ads right? wrong. There are ads for samsung phones and cadillacs everywhere, and it really seems to take away from it.

I agree that in certain places, especially big city games like gta, that its very fitting for game, but at the same time I love the ones that spoof real life ads, they give you the chance to laugh alittle and its good to see some developers have a sense of humor.

Down with ingame ads!

 

i like that GTA has adverts for things in teh game, not real life products. but the thing that everyone seems to be missing, that it doesnt matter how many adds are in a game, we are still payng $50 a peice on the game. its not lowering the costs at all.

iff game prices started dropping because of it i'd almost be ok with it. but advertising of all kinds is agrivating. billboards are the worst in my oppinion. in alot of states neon lights are illegal on the undersides of cars. but a GIANT add ont eh sides of steets is ok? they are there for people driving. so why is that legal? cause its big buisness. pop ups are anoying, side bars are ok, but in most cases those adds mean free viewing of a website. in that way im ok with it. there could probly be half as many TV adds and the stations would still be able to pay for tehir shows. i dont know how it is in europe, but i know Japan only has one add break per half hour if im not mistaken. that im fine with.

 

I really hope they go down the path of putting video ads at the start of games, because they are so easy to remove, I will never buy a game with ads in it.

 

Ditto. Everywhere I turn I am bombarded with ads for sub-par products, on the radio, tv, billboards, they even have the balls to call my home and pitch thier bs. When I play a game, the last thing I want to see is another god damn ad. If developers cant turn a profit from thier games without selling themselves out to ad agencies, maybe they should rethink thier strategies of creating the same regurgitated crap over and over and expecting it to sell, which is why PC gaming is in the sorry state it is in. I can think of a number of titles that are widley sucessful without ad revenue.

But, I have no problem with keeping my money. This is just like paying for a DVD and being forced to watch all of the previews and coke commercials first. I paid for the film, not to be force fed ads. And i feel the same way about games.

Ok, rant over. It just makes me sick that people out there who have no idea about gaming think that this is a positive thing for the end consumers. Well, i say screw you.

 

The day I have to watch a commercial every time I load up a game is the day I stop playing computer games.

 

Wouldn't mind it too much if it was in-game and suited the game context if it was a game startup or intro ad then hell ****en no, some crap cinemas in Hong Kong start off with ads that just annoys me.

 

anyone remember superfrog,,,,?

 

i think advertising could make games cheaper to joe public, if done in the right way and they werent just making extra money from it. it would help with piracy etc and overall be a good thing i think, as long as it wasnt too in your face