It's bad news for opponents of
in-game advertising—the results of the "most
exhaustive" study yet, investigating the effects of advertising in games, were released today. While "exhaustive"
seems to mean 1,350 young male gamers, the results are encouraging to advertisers, showing that 69% remember
seeing certain ads as they play. More interestingly, Nielsen Entertainment found that gamers actually
like in-game ads, as they provide added realism.
With advertising looking increasingly likely to creep into Xbox 360 games, as well as already being included in various MMOs, will we have to go entirely offline to avoid advertisements? Bringing ads into games is a logical step for companies, since television viewing is becoming less frequent amongst young people. However, there are more interesting ways to get gamers interested in your product than by slapping a clunky billboard in-game; while these most recent study results show that people remember ads, will they cause them to buy the product?
