The Industry On In-Game Advertising

Gamasutra's weekly 'Ask The Industry' feature deals, this week, with the ever-increasingly relevant issue of the importance of in-game advertising. From the article: "I believe that advergaming will continue to be a growing significant segment of video games. As with movie and TV product placement, games that do a good job of it won't be considered an affront, those that don't will be panned by gamers and critics. It will be interesting to see how the current clash between the Writers Guild of America (and SAG) and product placement interests works out, and whether similar issues will arise between game designers and financial stakeholders in the future. -Kim Pallister, Microsoft Corp"

Why can't they just be honest?

[voice_of_all_reason]

Just say it. "We can get more money by putting advertisements in games, and it'll generate more revenue than we'll lose by alienating gamers."

Re:The Next Batch of Articles . . .

[BigDork1001]

You hosers from the previous game/art article want to know the definition of art? I can give you *one* of them:

Picaso never embedded a Wendy's ad in a painting.

Oh yeah, well this [jssgallery.org] is considered art.

Why not?

[Red Flayer]

I can't see that anyone would be surprised by this. Advertising and cross-promotion already permeates almost every part of our entertainment media. Music is perhaps the only place where product placement is not widespread within the content, since the industry looks down upon those who do not consider themselves 'artists.'

Of course there are differences, but there are also a lot of parallels between this and the commercialization of the 'pop art' movement. If you consider games to be art, look to Warhol for where the industry is going.

The middle ground?

[NanoGator]

On the surface, I don't mind in-game advertising. If Carl Johnson drank Sprite instead of (whatever the made up name of a soda was), I'd actually prefer that. Vice City would have been more interesting if they could have used billboards from the 80's etc in it. (Although I must say, their parodies were pretty darned funny.)

Just like anything else in this world, it can be taken to a silly degree. One of the reasons I don't like going to IGN.com is because they INSIST on occasionally loading a full-page commercial instead of taking me straight to the news. I can understand that they need to make money, but when it makes me think twice about heading on over, it's not working right.

Truth be told, I don't think advertising in video games is an issue at all. The issue is whether or not the game is entertaining. Being forced to watch a 30 second ad during a game is hardly any different than a game with a 30 second load time or irritating control. Why aren't they that different? Games are measured by 'fun'. Advertising can be a good element or a bad element. Imagine running around Liberty City, passing a TV show, and running across that ad of the Jack in the Box ball with his hole xeroxed.

Re:The Next Batch of Articles . . .

[joemawlma]

Yeah but you could make that claim with ANY form of entertainment that SHOULD be considered art. Because Brittney Spears and Nsync weren't branded together with PEPSI or anything right? Oh wait, they were... Along with pretty much ALL popular entertainers, artists, and media out there these days. What about TV commercials or product placement in TV shows and Movies? It's all the same.

A reference to Picaso using Wendy's ads is a retarded statement. Times are different obviously and ads are here to stay. We are all consumers. But ads should not be a burden on any of us, they should be "background noise" in our lives; nothing more.

Re:I'm all for it

[Digital Vomit]

Oh, and to cut off the "they won't cut prices! they'll just make more money!" responses, of course prices will come down. That's the way the free market works.

I don't know what country you just stepped off the boat from, but you'll soon learn that's not the way things work here.

If company A can sell their game for $50 instead of $60, and thereby grab market share from company B, who has to charge $60, then of course company A will lower their prices.

Here's a more likely scenario: Company A realizes they can sell their game for $60, the same as company B, while making extra money selling ad space in the game. End of story.

If you think the inclusion of ads is going to reduce the cost of games, I've got a cable channel package to sell you.