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The Almighty Buck Entertainment Games

Publishers Detail Specific In-Game Ad Plans For Future Games 104

Posted by Soulskill from the just-what-i-never-wanted dept.
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.
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Publishers Detail Specific In-Game Ad Plans For Future Games More

Publishers Detail Specific In-Game Ad Plans For Future Games

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  • So long, game publishers. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JonTurner ( 178845 ) on Sunday December 14, 2008 @03:07AM (#26109275) Journal

    >>...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.

    • Is calling it nuka-cola instead of coke-cola is really going to ruin your game of fallout 3? Yeah, I didn't think so.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by autobutton ( 940946 )
        Interesting that you mention Fallout in this regard. I would probably agree if it was a random FPS, but it's all those little things that make the Fallout universe what it is. And I think everyone who ever suffered from advertising knows it's not going to be just that Coca-cola. After all, there's profit to be made. If my character carries an IPhone instead of a PipBoy, wears a Levi's leather jacket without the torn-off sleeve and drives a BMW convertible with the super cool new gadget car key that can re

      • Re:So long, game publishers. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Sunday December 14, 2008 @06:38AM (#26109955)

        Is calling it nuka-cola instead of coke-cola is really going to ruin your game of fallout 3? Yeah, I didn't think so.

        Is coca-cola really going to let the game developers allow their drink give you radiation poisoning?

        I looked at doing ads in games once, and the real problem was that the advertisers weren't happy to merely see their products in the game, but rather the product placements had to be positive, and on message, and they wanted exclusivity so no competitors products... maybe the climbate has changed since then but I doubt it.

        I mean, there was that huge Dodge Ram tie in with the new season of Terminator/SarahConner, and you can sort of see the same sort of placement 'control' going on. I suspect the script writers weren't allowed to write a scene where that truck gets toasted... that would be 'off message'. Dodge Ram's are safe, reliable, indestructable -- they aren't going to pay you for product placement, and then have it not start, or blow a tire, or crash...

        In a game its even worse, because not everything is scripted. So while Nuka-Cola can give you radiation poisoning, Coca-Cola won't buy into that. The game becomes souless because the advertisers won't pay to associate their product with something negative.

        Frankly, I'm surprised EA manages to get the exotics to sign on for some its Need for Speed outings. As much as they thrive on the dreams of street racing, they tend to avoid any official endorsement of it. Plus with NFS my understanding is that EA is paying the manufacturers, not the other way around.

        Meanwhile Grand Theft Auto IV has 'Comets' instead of 'Porsches'. I'm not sure if the reason is that EA has soem sort of exclusivity, so the manufacturers can't license them, or whether the manufacturers are turning them down due to the level of criminal/violent content, or whether GTA isn't simply isn't asking because it doesn't want to pay?

        I'm also curious what the situation is with military hardware/weaponry -- does a title like Rainbow six have to license the various rifles and pistols, etc? Or the rights to use an Apache / Comanche / Blackhawk...?

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by grahamd0 ( 1129971 )

          Meanwhile Grand Theft Auto IV has 'Comets' instead of 'Porsches'. I'm not sure if the reason is that EA has soem sort of exclusivity, so the manufacturers can't license them, or whether the manufacturers are turning them down due to the level of criminal/violent content, or whether GTA isn't simply isn't asking because it doesn't want to pay?

          I would guess that it's because GTA is, and always has been, satire. The entire world is a parody of ours- real products would ruin the effect.

        • So long??...Just MOD out the advertisements... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by VinylRecords ( 1292374 ) on Sunday December 14, 2008 @03:05PM (#26112525)

          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.

          • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

            by Crumplecorn ( 904797 )

            ....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.

            Colin McRae, and no doubt other rally franchises.

            Take your RL car of choice and turn it into an unrecognisable wreck.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kneo24 ( 688412 )
        Yes, yes it would. The creators of Fallout were smart enough to create some knock-off's with some added side effects to add immersion into the game. The game has incredible atmosphere in that regard.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Xian97 ( 714198 )
        In the office settings when playing F.E.A.R. there were Dell computers sitting on the desks, just what you would expect to find in many modern offices. I didn't have an issue with that. Sure, it's product placement, but it actually added to the realism. On the other hand, if you went into the break room you saw Fizzy Cola, not Coke or Pepsi so they looked out of place. Maybe that's more a statement about how ingrained brand recognition has become, but placing a product where you normally see that product in

    • You are just screaming in the wilderness. Over half the players out there have an I.Q. below 100, live in suburbia, and won't care.

    • 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.

  • Further the gap (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kvezach ( 1199717 ) on Sunday December 14, 2008 @04:43AM (#26109579)
    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.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Delwin ( 599872 ) *

        EA is laying people off. Has it occurred to anyone that given the rate of piracy of any decent game that charging for the game itself isn't such a good business model anymore?

        If adds can start to support some of the development costs of AAA titles we may start to see more dare taken in their design. As is who's willing to spend millions of dollars to develop these titles when they're not 'sure things'? Video games are falling into the same problem that Movies have.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Khyber ( 864651 )

          Allow me to educate you.

          Guess how much would be saved had DRM not been forced onto the developer thanks to the insistence of the PUBLISHER?

          Guess what these companies save by incorporating DRM? NOTHING. In fact, they LOSE more! Money lost in purchasing a product that not only FAILS to protect their product, but has the potential to cause issues to users hardware, thus incurring lawsuits, which cost even more money to defend against.

          I can show you in a few hundred ways how DRM is the ABSOLUTE cause of money l

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Delwin ( 599872 ) *

            This isn't about DRM. This is about in-game advertisement as a second (or third in the case of subscription titles) revenue stream.

            Piracy hurts primary sales. EA et all are worried about piracy (wrong or right, they're worried). Piracy doesn't hurt in-game ad sale revenue. In fact it can be argued that it helps in game add revenue.

            Ergo it can be argued that in-game adds could be the answer to piracy: remove DRM and let people pirate the game (free advertisement) and make money off them anyway since you

  • They're out of control. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    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.

  • 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.

    • That's my line of thought, too. I don't mind ads in games as long as it's in line with what you'd see in a real world situation. If my squad members in an FPS suddenly break into chatter about how they love Pepsi, that's bad. But if I shoot a fridge and there's, among other things, a Pepsi in it, that's good. I would like to see a drop of $10-$15 in the price of the game, though. If they're going to be making revenue off me perpetually, fine, but pass some savings on to me.

  • 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 h
  • "name-brand bottled water power-ups"
    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".

    • XBox only? Of course not. Why do you think Microsoft started all of those "Games for Windows" branded boxes? It'll be to cram in things like this and reduced moddability because of downloadable content (which is the way Dawn of War 2 appears to be going from some bits I've read).

      • Fortunately thus far "Games For Windows" has turned out to something between a meaningless rubber stamp and project that blew up on the launchpad so they don't really have the clout to do this. Games for Windows seemed to have the final goal of making PC Gaming into "Play Xbox games on your PC! Finally, all the trouble and hardware costs of PC Games with the restrictions and fees of console games! The future is now."

      • I'm also a Mac user and not interested in playing the "Games for Windows" at all. I've seen a few of them on the 360 and I wasn't thrilled at all. Then again, not many PC games give me the joy I hope for. :(
  • Did they also detail the new demographic of their user base? Cause it sure as hell won't be me.
  • ...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.

  • Banners in FSX (Score:3, Funny)

    by SomeoneGotMyNick ( 200685 ) on Monday December 15, 2008 @08:12AM (#26118989) Journal

    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.

  • 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

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