Product Placement on the Rise in Games

[SoulBlazer]

We've talked about this some allready, but this new article has more concrete information and figures:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050521/ap_on_hi_te/ads_in_games

This bothers me. I understand games are becoming very expensive to make and money needs to be made somehow. And if the product or ad is placed or used in such a way as to blend in with the gmaeplay, I don't mind. But they better not make me watch a damn freaking commercial during the loading screens! :angry:

[Ed Oscuro]

It doesn't bother me, except that it does mean (inevitably) that counter-culture games will not be getting their share of the money pie, i.e. Oddworld. I always thought Oddworld was a lousy example, from my spectator seat anyhow, given that we've actually seen some games with a bit of truly subversive in-game treatments of commercialism (Fallout and System Shock 2 are ALWAYS on my mind, of course, and I know you love SS2 as well).

The first thing to think about, though, is that advertising (brand recognition) is more important than even freebies in determining repeat sales. Often it's even more important than quality or value (coughCastlevania Legends, Mountain Dew Piss Soda, and shitty beersHACK).

Companies are going to push ads along the fringes like a plant slowly extending tendrils towards nourishment or stretching its fronds to the sun. Think about it - for years and years you've been seeing ads in games. How many games can you think of with a mandatory wait at splash screens? Some console games let you skip them with a press of the start button, and some don't; I think the SG-1000 has a fair number of games where the Sega logo can't be skipped (if not all of them - this is certainly true of many SNES and Genesis games). Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (on PC) won't let me skip the annoyingly lengthy corporate splash movies. We've gotten used to this.

Putting companies in the credits that were supporting of a project - i.e. movie compression utility vendors - that's nothing new. PC gamers use a wide variety of tools that are obviously branded - freeware ones included; even many made by privade individuals programming for a profitless hobby put a sort of brand name on their tools (AnalogX comes to mind).

I predict this trend - branded software components - will be seen in force in consoles if downloadable programs are allowed onto future generations of consoles. I don't see us drowning in ads this next generation, and I also don't think the console manufacturers would allow ads to junk up their basic interface, even if they get a lowered fee/kickback from the developers of said necessary components. I do think there's plenty of room for that to happen, though, and we've already started to see companies like Sony setting up auction services for game data/items.

[Arcturius]

Remember 'Zool' you couldn't get more blatant than the product placement there - yet I've never bought or had the urge to by Chuba-chups.

[CartCollector]

If anyone's read the article in EGM, game makers have been gearing to raise the standard price in the next generation. This could be the one thing to bring down development costs. I wouldn't mind some advertising in games. Really, there's tons of ads in real life, and if there's a game that works in a city or football stadium, more realism could be achieved by putting ads in between plays or on billboards. Just as long as the ads aren't redundant (i.e. Best Buy billboards everywhere in NFSU2).

[link1110]

I've played games with product placement (In the japanese versions of the Tales series, "Gels" are "gummies," a type of real candy) and I agree with SB. It blends into the gameplay, so it doesn't bother me, but if I ever havce my game stopped to bring me a commercial, I will promptly sell that game.

[pragmatic insanester]

"Grab your Bawls and Run Like Hell" I WANT A FUCKING SEQUEL TO THIS GAME. DAMN YOU NONBUYERS!

<3 lance henriksen

[Cryomancer]

you just should see the quest on PSO BB right now. In Japan, it was the Fumitsu Cup (i probably mispelled that i'm tired and don't feel like loking ti up), and guess what we got? AOL CUP. As in *the* AOL with it's reputation and all. things like "you're goign fast, you must be using aol" come up, and there's AOL signs everywhere in town. the onyl good part was the fact that a) we got two quests otherwise never in english before far as I know, and when you go to ruins one you get the evil grunt units yelling about AOL which obviously was to be marketing but when i see the big scary level's inhabitants yelling AOL at me, I gotta laugh.

but yeah, kinda stupid...but they did it. weirdass.