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The Almighty Buck Entertainment Games

Advergaming to Hit $4 Billion in 2008 50

Posted by Zonk from the that's-a-lot-of-delicious-subway-subs dept.
Next Generation reports the somewhat disheartening statistic that advergaming is likely to break $4 Billion by 2008. From the article: "TWST points out that gamers are much more receptive to 'advergaming' than other potential consumers who block pop-up Internet ads or mute television commercials because in many cases, ads in games provide realism. However, many gamers would disagree with that notion, saying that ads can often be intrusive." We recently reported on the poorly thought-out Counter-Strike Subway ads. Here's hoping they're more well considered that than those ads.
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Advergaming to Hit $4 Billion in 2008 More

Advergaming to Hit $4 Billion in 2008

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  • It's ok if we reap the benefits too! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gasmonso ( 929871 ) on Monday January 23, 2006 @05:30PM (#14543777) Homepage

    If the advetising doesn't detract from the game and the revenue reduces the cost of it, then I'm in. If it doesn't than what's the point from a gamers perspective?

    http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]

    • Re:It's ok if we reap the benefits too! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ryants ( 310088 ) on Monday January 23, 2006 @05:40PM (#14543844)
      and the revenue reduces the cost of it

      I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you.

      • Hold your breath. The issue is that advertising is how these increasingly expensive games can be deployed at the costs you're used to. Or, didn't you wonder how the average game cost could have tripled in the last year, the average price could decline by five percent and profits could have maintained steady?

        It's all well and good to talk about how awful it is that a game costs $50, even though that translates to less money per hour than movies, magazines, theater, books or in fact pretty much anything oth
    • Yea, sure...that's what they will tell you when they first do it...and it may be that way for a while...look at banner ads...we were told that "banner ads keep your content free"...and for a while that was true...but now, sites are making less and less money on ads...and what has happened...the ads have become more intrusive...so what are we doing now??? We have now started paying for content (like Slashdot Subscriptions and TotalFark)...
      • We all know why, however. The ads don't really do much. I'd say that at least a third of users ignore them completely, and even more know where to get what they need, and have no reason to keep their eyes open. Since the advent of online ads, I honestly believe that I haven't ever clicked on one.

        I hate to say it, but I'd rather not have the content than be forced to look at ads. I refuse to watch most television because I hate the commercials (if I do watch TV, I mute the ads). I wouldn't be so adam

    • I have personally experienced Massive's advertising in my favorite game, Planetside. Apparently SOE is using Planetside as a test bed to see if it can viably put advertising in all it's MMO games. I wrote up a full report on my blog. Here's a link my article:

      http://wearyman.blogspot.com/2005/08/privacy-lies- and-videogames.html [blogspot.com]

      It also includes information on how to block the advertising. (at least Massive's advertising) I'm sure there are just as easy ways to block advertising from other ad agencies.

      Persona

  • Not so much receptiveness (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kevmo ( 243736 ) on Monday January 23, 2006 @05:32PM (#14543791)
    Speaking for myself as a gamer, it is not so much as being receptive to the ads as it is the fact that they are harder to block. Web page ads are easily blocked with adblock, but for an online game with ads, you would need to modify (hack) the client to get rid of them. Such hacking could be detected, and could result in you being banned, so we are just forced to deal with ads in games when they appear.
  • Somehow I doubt that software publishing companies will restrain themselves until every surface possible advertises something and pop-up ads or spam exist in every game. If there are real benefits (eg a big discount to gamers) then ok, we'll talk, but if prices don't fall for the consumer then this is one trend that is nothing but a slippery slope and needs to be derailed.
    • "Somehow I doubt that software publishing companies will restrain themselves until every surface possible advertises something and pop-up ads or spam exist in every game."

      They won't restrain themselves, but advertisers will. Too low a signal-to-noise ratio means poor returns on their ad placements. I'm sure after the placement market has had some time to gel, there will be an analysis of what the 'optimal' amount of content is.

      Otherwise, magazines would be 99% ads, instead of just 50-80% (not includi
    • Somehow I doubt that software publishing companies will restrain themselves until every surface possible advertises something and pop-up ads or spam exist in every game.

      That would ruin the game. Smarmy comments are cute and all, but believe it or not, we are in fact trying to keep our customers.
  • The latest Need for Speed games have all had advertising in game. I always thought it was neet to pull into a Best Buy and spin a couple of 360s.

    But if I'm tromping through Midgard and see a Radio Shack add, I'm going to be annoyed.

    -Rick
    • LOL - that made me smile because when I see something in a game that's "real-world" I can then go and be a mass-ass-mofo which I'd never be in real-life (i'm on parole). Doing doughnuts in a Walmart/Tesco car-park - Bring It On!

    • Re:NFS Series (Score:4, Insightful)

      by TheLoneDanger ( 611268 ) on Monday January 23, 2006 @06:05PM (#14544064)
      "But if I'm tromping through Midgard and see a Radio Shack add, I'm going to be annoyed."

      The simple decision made by publishing companies will then be to not make any more games where they can't place ads. No "Midgard" means no complaints about the ads not fitting in.
      • I'm all for it. FOSS and indy games will take up the slack and hopefully become rather popular for it.
      • not necessarily true. there are still movies that don't take place in a real world that don't have inapropriate product placement, like lord of the rings, and serenity (fruity oaty bars not-withstanding). I don't see why allowing *apropriate* product placement will ruin creative worlds.
      • The problem is that excludes whole genres from advertising. Publishers and developers aren't stupid. We're not going to cut away entire genres just because we can't figure out how to put up billboards; that'd just mean that somebody else would come fill in the genre and take the profits away.

        It's a market model. We're not going to push our customers away. We're going to use enough advertising that it doesn't bother you, and no more. I've been laughing to myself over the last two months about how in an
    • But if I'm tromping through Midgard and see a Radio Shack add, I'm going to be annoyed.
      ------
      But would you take having a "Circle R" shop have some "magic artifacts"?
      oh btw Radio ^wShack add^w would be correct ie your statement should have been "...and see a RadioShack ad..."
  • If I'm driving round in GT5 and there's adverts on the billboards - hell - it'll be more "real-life" (like *I* frequently drive fast cars round race tracks in real life so I know what I'm talking about). I really don't see a problem here as long as the games makers do it subtly. I'm sure I've played games in the past (maybe Max Payne?) where the drinks machines were either Coke or Pepsi... that's not invasive - it's realism and hopfully good (financially) for the games maker.

    On a side note - imagine i
    • Incidentally, I just got Gran Turismo 4, and the adverts in the game are pretty much in line with what you see on a real race track. You don't need to race yourself to find this out, just turn on some racing on TV. The barrier at the bottoms of the grandstands always has a shitload of ads on it, they point cameras there often because it's usually the final straight. And they slap ads around the track anywhere else there's likely to be a camera around.
  • amers are much more receptive to 'advergaming' than other potential consumers who block pop-up Internet ads

      Well duh they are more receptive. Ads in games don't prevent you from playing the game. Pop up ads prevent you from seeing the page you are trying to look at. Maybe the advertisers can learn something from this.

  • I smell a fresh load of bullshit (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SmallFurryCreature ( 593017 ) on Monday January 23, 2006 @05:55PM (#14543977) Journal
    Why? What is the state of advergaming right now? Almost non-existant yet somehow in a mere two years it will be worth 4 billion? That is fantasy accounting. It probably goes like this, 1st month 1million, 2nd month 2 million wich can only lead you to conclude that in 48 months you must have reach 48 million. It is called making a future prediction with not enough historical data.

    Now we just had a story about planetside getting ads. Another MMORPG that I can't remember right has been doing that for over a year now. Nice but I would hardly use their "success" as a way to predict what is going to happen in two years time. The most popular MMORPG's right now are fantasy making it hard to fit ads into them.

    I also remember games like Grand Prix Legends that had to jump through hoops to get permission to use the authentic ads in the game of the era. Far from being payed most companies will sue you if you use their ad slogans in your game without permission.

    What company would really want to be associated with a GTA San Andreas especially now that it has been shown game makers can't be trusted? What will be in the next version, a hidden level of shooting kittens? A marketing nightmare.

    It is the same reason a lot of car companies do not give permission to use their real car names in games with violence or even just realastic damage modelling. You do not want customers of you latest super car to see exactly what remains of the car when you take it to 180 on the open road.

    EQ2 pizza deal seems to have been removed. Ad based MMO's are the ones who couldn't hack it as a subscription game. Most companies do not want to be associated with the wrong kind of game.

    Sure there will be a market but 4 billion worth? I doubt it. Reminds me of the internet bubble.

    • That is fantasy accounting. It probably goes like this, 1st month 1million, 2nd month 2 million wich can only lead you to conclude that in 48 months you must have reach 48 million. It is called making a future prediction with not enough historical data.

      Close... but you underestimate the power of geometrical progression! If they actually see 1st month = 1mil, 2nd month = 2mil, well obviously the third month will be 4mil and the fourth 8! So in your 48 months' time advergaming will almost definitely* be wo

    • "Almost non-existant yet somehow in a mere two years it will be worth 4 billion? "

      Yes. Considering that 2006 advertising spending will be over one Trillion USD, as it was in 2005 and 2004, just for media advertising, why not?

      TNS report on 2005 1st-half advertising [iaaglobal.org]

      Add in the fact that the video game industry is now by some methods of calculation now larger than the movie industry, why not?
      There is a tone of advertising money out there desperate to find its way into that prime market of young males
    • What is the state of advergaming right now? Almost non-existant

      What are you talking about? I have advergaming on the Sega Genesis. Go get your PS1 racing games. They've all got real-world billboards. Almost 15% of EA's revenue was advergaming in 2002, the first year they reported on it seperately. The state of advergaming was pervasive before this millennium started. It's just that we're subtle, we do it in ways you were already used to from the real world, and so you never noticed.
  • It's a slippery slope. Advertising in games will only work if gamers continue to play the games. I know plenty of gamers that will refuse to pay for a game with ads as well as refuse to play a game where ads distract you...*cough*...That IS the purpose of an ad; to grab your attention.

    Personally...I'm not throwing my support behind any game that puts in ingame ads. I'll stick with console games if I have to.
    • Personally...I'm not throwing my support behind any game that puts in ingame ads. I'll stick with console games if I have to.

      Players who've seen the Motorola and developer ads and logos in True Crime: New York City for the PS2 reply [wikimedia.org] to you accordingly.

      Ok, ok, so it's a "computer entertainment system"...*cough*'nother*cough*'onsole*cough*

    • Re:If the gamers still play... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ultranova ( 717540 ) on Tuesday January 24, 2006 @03:30AM (#14546930)

      Personally...I'm not throwing my support behind any game that puts in ingame ads. I'll stick with console games if I have to.

      Why ? I doubt that console game makers are less likely to turn away extra profit.

      I wonder if pirates will start providing no-ad patches, on top of no-cd patches, and therefore increasing their already valuable contribution to the gaming community ?

  • I always thought it would be a god idea to flash banner ads or something while you wait to respawn in Counter-Strike. As long as they didn't prevent you from speccing the other players, I think most peoople would be fine with it. Heck, it would almost be like a perk of winning the round, you don't see ads.
  • My first exposure to adverware was just the other day. The local CompUSA store had a display with boxes of free DVD games, sponsored by Verizon. I took one and when I got home I noticed very prominently on the box the names "blockdot" and "kewlbox.com". A quick google search didn't return any hits warning about sypware or adware or anything else. In fact most of the hits were related to business stories. I haven't installed the games yet. I doubt that I will.
  • I remember as a kid I was watching an episode of Full House and there was a soda can out that looked just like a Mountain Dew can. On a closer shot you could see that it the "ew" in in the name was changed to a big "O", so it looked like "Mountain Do". Kind of clever I thought, but as a little kid I wondered why they didn't use the real thing. This is the little places where advertising can help a game (or any media). But we will never get the little places. It seems like there will be a generic Mounta

  • It's most uncool (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Firehed ( 942385 )
    I'll tell you, that's the one thing that REALLY pissed me off in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Otherwise, the game was awesome. But when the computer screensavers are showing ads for upcoming movies and restaurants (War of the Worlds comes to mind), it's just not right. I suppose if they can predict what movies are coming out in mid-2007, that's one thing - the context would (almost) work. I don't know too many people who set movie ads for screensavers, but I could deal with billboards, even if I do hate
  • but ONLY if they are in places where ads would appear anyway.
    For example, if you are playing a racing game and racing around a track, ads on the walls are ok. As are ads on the cars. Ditto for ads on the walls or field of a sports stadium. Vending machines with real brands are also ok.
    Billboards in places where billboards are found with real ads on them are again ok. Where the game is simulating a real place (e.g. a real racetrack with real cars or a real sports stadium), it is much better to have the same
  • It was bad enough when I saw the 7-up smiley dot painted on an orc's shield, but when I saw the green dragon with the "Fly United" logo tatooed on his butt and empty Cheetos bags in his lair I vowed the Mad Advertiser would meet a just end, and soon!

    He's here somewhere and I'll find him and whack him good, I just hopes he gives decent xp and drops a bag of Cheetos and maybe a cold Coke. Tickets to the Bahamas would be a very good drop, but I'd not fly there on the back of a cranky dragon.

    Cheers.
  • They're okay if I don't have to pay for the game, and they're okay if they add to the game's effect without feeling like an ad. Subtle product placement is fine, and if viewing ads means I get a(n otherwise) free game, well, that's just great.
  • Did anybody else have the Wipeout for the original Playstation? There were Red Bull ads everywhere. At the time, I don't think anybody knew what the heck Red Bull even was... What was that, like 1996 or 97?

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