Over the next 5 years I'm predicting a large increase in the amount of in-game advertising, especially from the console games sector(predominantly 360+PS3, but I'm sure the Wii will get in on the act - even if producing on that platform is much cheaper than the other two), which will spill over into PC games also. Costs for next-gen production are set to go through the roof, so all avenues of money saving will need to be used.
Also with the rise of the anti junk food advertising campaign in the uk(and globally also), I'm sure people like MacD's + burger king are looking around very hard for other avenues to get their messages across to 'the kids', now that tv and other traditional mediums get squeezed.
And i totally agree with Mark in that we can expect to see it used in the most game intrusive places(Hey great I've nearly defeated my medieval foe...and look an advert for nike, fantastic!), just a quick analysis of the industry proves that the marketing and PR guys only care about one thing - the money, f**k being proud of the product and any kind of artistic credibility; just get the punters money = job well done.
Still there is a place for sure - like the billboards in a grand prix title etc, and that i never have had a problem with. Even the billboards in Elite(frontier onwards) like 'recycle or die' had a purpose, and to draw from films - Blade Runner had that Atari logo in its cyber-punk world. Stuff like that works fine. I just wonder as the ball gets rolling and the 'money is everything' guys get to work if it will get used sensibly and in context - probably not, and yet another reason to buy less games(imho).
Gamevertising
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RabidZombie
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- Posts: 2414
- Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2005 10:09 pm
Racing games are perfectly suited to game adverts.
However, I feel practically any other game will suffer. Can you imagine your favourite Adventure game with ads for mortgages plastered on a billboard?
In Counter Strike, do you really think that some desert landscape in an Asian country will have an advert for Half Life 2: Episode 2? It looks silly. Not to mention, I doubt people will be persuaded to buy objects which appear in adverts they despise. In fact, they're less likely to buy the object because of their associations with ruining their FPS experience.
ZakGordon has a good last point (his whole post is good) where in a few, rare, cases, it has been used sensibly, and well.
However, I feel practically any other game will suffer. Can you imagine your favourite Adventure game with ads for mortgages plastered on a billboard?
In Counter Strike, do you really think that some desert landscape in an Asian country will have an advert for Half Life 2: Episode 2? It looks silly. Not to mention, I doubt people will be persuaded to buy objects which appear in adverts they despise. In fact, they're less likely to buy the object because of their associations with ruining their FPS experience.
ZakGordon has a good last point (his whole post is good) where in a few, rare, cases, it has been used sensibly, and well.
RabidZombie wrote:Not to mention, I doubt people will be persuaded to buy objects which appear in adverts they despise.
People aren't generally persuaded by adverts on an intellectual level, though there are exceptions. Rather, they intend to create a false familiarity with the product. But I agree that inappropriate adverts can ruin the experience.
Mark beware.
I do remember quite a stir of controversy when TV sports broadcasts first began using digital video overlay for in-game advertising.
In near real-time a TV broadcast event (say, NFL football) would be shown having background billboards digitally replaced to suit the audience's broadcast region.
That is to say, a Bud Light billboard you would see on TV in Los Angeles, would be a Miller Beer ad seen on TV in Chicago.
If you physically attended the event, the original billboard would suit that local region (say, Coors Lite).
I heard this digital "effect" was originally called Elvis. Sports fans were amazed to see Elvis, and drank more beer...
Sports team owners benefited greatly from selling content space to multiple sponsers (multiple broadcasts).
For a little while, no one even noticed that Elvis was alive (and well and hiding in digital overlay/underlay.)
If I were Introversion, I would PLAN on content-skinable-space that could be sold to the highest bidder.
In the multimedia field, PLAN on selling sound, graphic, and video, content space. It's in your own best interests.
Elvis Lives! I just can't find reference to that TV effect on today's Internet. But I've seen him! I swear.
On the other hand, I personally insist that your content-skin-space for advertising be user-selectable and,
one of those selections must belong to Introversion (or from your community?), or I won't play.
If no one cares, just remove the IV name, and sell your work to another company for distribution with in-game ads.
http://blog.cohnwolfe.com/wolftracking/2007/02/09/inserting-the-message-where-we-used-to-insert-quarters/
<---------------------------------------------Elvis was THIS controversial---------------------------------------------->
I do remember quite a stir of controversy when TV sports broadcasts first began using digital video overlay for in-game advertising.
In near real-time a TV broadcast event (say, NFL football) would be shown having background billboards digitally replaced to suit the audience's broadcast region.
That is to say, a Bud Light billboard you would see on TV in Los Angeles, would be a Miller Beer ad seen on TV in Chicago.
If you physically attended the event, the original billboard would suit that local region (say, Coors Lite).
I heard this digital "effect" was originally called Elvis. Sports fans were amazed to see Elvis, and drank more beer...
Sports team owners benefited greatly from selling content space to multiple sponsers (multiple broadcasts).
For a little while, no one even noticed that Elvis was alive (and well and hiding in digital overlay/underlay.)
If I were Introversion, I would PLAN on content-skinable-space that could be sold to the highest bidder.
In the multimedia field, PLAN on selling sound, graphic, and video, content space. It's in your own best interests.
Elvis Lives! I just can't find reference to that TV effect on today's Internet. But I've seen him! I swear.
On the other hand, I personally insist that your content-skin-space for advertising be user-selectable and,
one of those selections must belong to Introversion (or from your community?), or I won't play.
If no one cares, just remove the IV name, and sell your work to another company for distribution with in-game ads.
http://blog.cohnwolfe.com/wolftracking/2007/02/09/inserting-the-message-where-we-used-to-insert-quarters/
<---------------------------------------------Elvis was THIS controversial---------------------------------------------->
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