Gamasutra Talks about In-Game Advertising

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Here's an excerpt from the introduction to Gamasutra's collection of answers to the question about in-game advertising which was asked some time ago:

Our latest Question of the Week asked our audience of game professionals: “Do you think that in-game advertising is going to be important to the video game industry in the future? What business models and placement tactics for in-game ads make the most sense to you?”

The general consensus from the responses received is that, while not necessarily always desirable, in-game advertising will be an inevitable fixture in the future. A particular focus in responses dealt with the extent and context of ad placement in a given game, with concerns over contemporary brands in sci-fi or fantasy settings, alongside a plethora of other interesting comments.

Personally, I think in-game ads are universally better than humongous prices and I've heard someone say games could be financed that way and distributed for free. Sounds like wishful thinking, but there is some sense in it. Perhaps eliminating copy protection expenses and putting more ads in games could reduce prices enough for piracy to stop paying off, although I surely wouldn't like cutscenes with unrelated ads. I don't think watching a slideshow of the products of some company each time the game starts would enhance roleplaying experience, let alone the same kind of thing in cutscenes. Perhaps it would be better just to smuggle brands into games in funny ways without overdoing it and display a couple of logos before the game starts, skippable at will by pressing Escape. Then again, who would pay boatloads of money for just that.

Read the whole thing at Gamasutra.

 

The problem I see is that the ads can not be skipable, otherwise nobody will invest in them. The logos at the start of the game could be made to incorporate ads, but there cannot be too much ads, since a game that takes forever will not be played much, hence reducing the benefit of the ad. I think solo games are the least interesting ones to put ads in, unless you update them with the patches, and even then.. On the other hand, you can always add small ads at startup, not skipable, to mmo games, to get rid of the subscription fees. Since you're connected to the server, it's easy to update regularly the ads, meaning it's easier to fund. Also, if a game employs loadscreens, instead of all the funky animation or other ingame feellike stuff, those screens could contain ads too. It wouldn't detract much from the "feel" of imersion, not much more than other loadscreens. The only way for total immersion is no loadscreens at all, but that's another discussion.

 

I would say that more subtle in game content (billboards/signs on buildings, items in the background etc.) would be the better way to go - although none of that would work to well for a fantasy RPG. Sports games are a natural for this as they would just be reflecting the reality of most modern sports arenas.

Spotting small details like that is kind of fun, ads of the loading screen would just tick most people off.

Personally, most ads that I see just annoy me and potentially make me boycott the product due to that annoyance.

 

Yeah, wouldn't like to see cutlery manufacturer logos on swords or M$-certified magical devices.