Sony, Activision CEOs skeptical of in-game advertising
by Scott Jon Siegel 
{ Jan 31st 2008 at 1:00PM }
Stringer reasons that advertisers' pockets are not as deep as everyone hopes, adding to this the fact that "young people don't like advertising very much." A bold statement, to be sure. For his part, Kotick states "I wouldn't go in that direction myself," causing us to look back at the heavy product placement in the Activision-published Guitar Hero III and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.
These comments come in direct opposition to companies like IGA, who quite recently boasted about their upcoming integration of ads into the EA-published Burnout Paradise. We'll have to side with Stringer and Kotick on this one; we young people don't like advertising very much.
[Via PS3 Fanboy]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gameplayFanBoy @ Jan 31st 2008 1:10PM
I don't mind adverts in certain game types like billboards in a racing game, but if a futuristic FPS/RPG has a 2008 Ford Fusion ad I think it breaks immersion and just looks like a lame attempt at money grubbing.
Deck @ Jan 31st 2008 1:10PM
Alright! Someone is stepping up and saying advertising is a bad idea in games!
I agree!
baby sea tuna @ Jan 31st 2008 1:12PM
If they lowered the prices of games, this probably wouldn't be as much of an issue. Same as I don't mind watching a 30 second Yaris ad every 8 minutes as long as it means I can watch a free episode of Bones on Fox's site. You can't have your cake...
FidliousWong @ Jan 31st 2008 2:45PM
Can't get lower priced than free! Battlefield Heroes has me hyped. It about time developers started noticing the whole MMO scene in Asia...
Matt B @ Jan 31st 2008 1:17PM
They don't work on me.
dvdguy @ Jan 31st 2008 1:18PM
I have no problem with real ads in sports games or racing games. They only enhance the realism. GHIII could have been a little less subtle with their in-game ads, but ultimately those were fine too.
If developers can't think of clever ads to put in their games, like Triple Play Baseball and You Don't Know Jack used to do, then real world ads are better than poorly made up ads.
FidliousWong @ Jan 31st 2008 2:43PM
Actually, the advertising in GHIII sucked for a main reason, majority of it, and I do mean a vast majority, had not a goddam thing to do with the subject matter. From Red Bull to Pontiac to Axe Body Spray, GHIII's ads felt invasive.
Now, compare this to Rock Band were the advertising is handled by... people who make musical instruments?!? The fuck?!? You mean suddenly seeing logos for guitar string makers or actual effects pedals is a good thing? Yeah, actually. Because it never felt invasive.
baby sea tuna @ Jan 31st 2008 2:50PM
I agree. In the old guitar hero games the ads were for Gibson and Ernie Ball and shit, but when I got to the "Let's make a video on the back of some Pontiac truck" stage in III, I just felt cheap. Then again, it probably did portray the "dirty sellout" part of the music industry pretty accurately...and maybe that's what they were going for all along.
FidliousWong @ Jan 31st 2008 5:54PM
I don't know about the whole "selling out" aspect. I know when you go to concerts, especially the bigger tours, they often get sponsors but that's for a reason.
Music artists do not see a lot of money from CD sales... in fact, they see very little. Record companies are the ones that make money there. Bands make their money from touring, but their parent company will not pay for the concerts or expenses that come with. They'll take their cut, naturally, but they don't fron the cash for concerts. So if a group of bands want to tour together but the consequence of that is a Sony booth or Monster ads all over the buses and entrances, oh well.
I have a hard time calling it selling out when bands seek financing in areas where the record companies should be doing their job.
dan stabbingworth @ Jan 31st 2008 1:18PM
It's really funny when you step back and look at how often you're assaulted by advertising just in general. I find it pretty frustrating when things are constantly trying to sell me stuff or grab my attention. When I play video games I do that to escape from BS like advertising.
That said, for some reason I feel the desire to buy some lightspeed briefs...
Co @ Jan 31st 2008 1:36PM
.... or you could just NOT let something as trivial as advertising get to you. Seriously, it's so previlant that I don't even notice it. I liken it to breathing. I don't sit there all day and think about every inhale/exhale. lol now i got you all thinking about each breath.
Grimmus @ Jan 31st 2008 2:41PM
I don't know what games Co is playing, but as far as I can see, advertising isn't so prevalent that we should just accept it like breathing. Plus, there's the added benefit of free will and open choice, so we can choose to support the games that either don't have advertisements in them or, at the very least, games that don't have obnoxious ads in inconvenient places. We're not benefiting at all from the extra commercial crap that gets pumped into a lot of titles, so I don't see the reason in being so apathetic enough to just lay down and take it.
BigD145 @ Jan 31st 2008 3:36PM
@Co
All advertising pisses me off. I don't consider it like breathing because, unlike breathing, advertising is not necessary to life. Many thing are made more expensive because of advertising. The money advertisers throw around didn't pop out someone's a$$ at no cost. It came out of people that are poor and not wealthy. I don't buy, steal, or play games with advertising in them. Not a single billboard worth.
Srayer @ Jan 31st 2008 4:28PM
@BigD145:
Poor people pay for advertising? What? The cost of advertisement is built into the price of a product. Even then, it's not necessarily bad, because there is a tension between the cost of advertising and how much revenue that advertising generates through sales, and there is a relationship between volume of sales and cost of the product.
Jon @ Jan 31st 2008 1:18PM
Adverts work, in certain games like sports. Futuristic games can have advert, but only if done in a right way like in Minority Report.
FOXHOUND @ Jan 31st 2008 1:19PM
For something like a NASCAR or NFS game, sure... but I don't want to see Solid Snake shilling some two-bit arthritis cream or Samus talking about how well Kotex fits despite wearing a zero suit.
Blegh.
FOXHOUND @ Jan 31st 2008 1:21PM
I definitely wouldn't mind that these days instead of paying $60(PS3/X360) or $50(Wii) for games. Maybe stick'em on load screens or background filler for "reality immersion"... and not a literal copy of the advertising skit in Wayne's World.
FOXHOUND @ Jan 31st 2008 1:22PM
augh. That reply was for BABY SEA TUNA.
samfish @ Jan 31st 2008 1:22PM
I try to make it a point to not buy products I see advertised in games usually, so...
But that's only if it's not glaring or if it's generic.
If it's for something as generic as a timeless brand, like Ford or Apple or something and it doesn't look completely out of place, I don't really mind it, I suppose.
But if it's tries to hit me over the head with something stupid, like the new Chevey Cobalt or something then it's gonna piss me off something fierce.
Gibbons @ Jan 31st 2008 1:24PM
I don’t have a problem with people playing video games to some extent, but when the advertising community tries to force ads on America’s youth, that I have a problem with. We already live in a world that is bombarding us with advertisements everyday all day, covering topics from face cleanser to red bull and to be honest, I hate the ads as much as the next person. So this brings me to my question first question: Why do you think young people are playing more video games than watching television? It’s because of the STUPID ADS!! We can’t sit through an hour long television program without seeing the same ad four or five times, yet we can easily play one whole video game and not be bothered to spend our hard earned money on something that is too expansive and doesn’t work. Which brings me to my last question: If the video game industry allows advertising to be included in the video game its self, do you honestly think that will increase sales? I doubt it will. If anything, people are going to get so ticked off that they can’t watch television or play video games without advertizing, that they are going to find something else to do instead. Who knows, that just might be the very thing that jumpstarts reading for fun in this country again. But if it were me, I wouldn’t buy the product out of anger, and I’m sure I wouldn’t be the only one. Take a hint, don’t mess with something that’s not broken unless you are ready to deal with the disaster to come.
-Z- @ Jan 31st 2008 1:48PM
Is that a threat?
Dan @ Jan 31st 2008 2:25PM
I don’t know about this whole advertising in games. I think its ok with a racing game or something where the actual product is in use. Why not you’re not really thinking about. Well I like this car in the game so I will probably like it in real life. It seems that advertisers now are just trying to push the envelope. I think if something like was started it would just get out of hand. Advertisers would soon try to fit in an ad anywhere they could. I think there is already a sufficient amount in the games now. The message is across. We see enough ads on TV and everywhere we go in out everyday lives. I don’t really see a need in making more and more ads. I could see people blowing this out of context. The game companies may consider because they are going to make money off of this. And money is what it’s all about.
Ron @ Jan 31st 2008 1:50PM
When advertising enhances realism I find this to be a very acceptable application in a video game. Burnout Paradise is great because it appears in billboards or signs around the city. NHL08 has advertising that changes on the boards of the game and the "Dodge Player of the Game" just like in real-life.
When it's just tossed in there for no apparent reason (like Guitar Hero 3) then it becomes a problem. People will say GH3 is borderline because rock tours are sponsored, but the placements are much too blatant.
I think if developers and advertisers focus on where advertising can enhance the game AND make money this can be a big win.
Warlord @ Jan 31st 2008 2:00PM
As admirable as Vivendi and Sony CEO's sound, they're really just saying they doubt that going to the effort of making in-game ads may not be worth it. Not really as a "Do this and we scare off our loyal, loyal gamers", but as a "Why bother, it'll cost you as much to put it in as you get back". Meh
Again, you'd reduce the outrage from gamers by, I predict, as much as 90% if they would just pass the savings on to us. Advertisements are supposed to be there as us paying for something. Ads on TV and radio? so we don't have to pay the stations ourselves to watch it. What do we get for being subjected to ads in games?
Whatever happened to advertising as a way to get your product out there? It used to be just so people would think "Oh, there IS a cream for this embarrasing rash". Instead, we are bombarded with ads with the intent of "Buy, this. you didn't know you wanted it, but you do. get it now". it's more subliminal, and that disturbs me.
For instance, Halo3. Was there really anyone in the world that DIDN'T know about it? Then why bother spending millions of dollars to keep advertising it?
WizarDru @ Jan 31st 2008 2:02PM
The irony of Activision stating this cannot be understated. It's one thing to have a company like Gibson or Zildjian do product placements in a game like Guitar Hero III. Those make sense and fit the genre, just like having real car manufacturers in a racing game isn't really product placement. It's another thing to record a video that looks a commercial for PONTIAC and AXE body-spray, things that have NOTHING to do with the gameplay AT ALL.
It's made doubly-annoying if the perceived corporate placement doesn't affect the length of the game or it's cost. TV is acceptable with commercials WHEN IT'S FREE. If I pay $60 for a game, I expect it to either be commercial free OR to show me a tangible benefit to put up with those placements.
Vandell @ Jan 31st 2008 2:06PM
I personally don't mind ads in games, so long as the developers are honest about and not trying to sneak it in my face (ala GHIII.) An example of good in-game advertising is the upcoming Battlefield Heroes, where they have stated there will be advertising between matches in order to provide a free game (I think.)
JRM @ Jan 31st 2008 3:47PM
Advertising is not--and never was--necessary to enjoy games. We don't even need to rationalize it. ADVERTISING DOES NOT BELONG IN GAMES!
especially because we all know what kind of crap it implies...
Faar @ Jan 31st 2008 4:22PM
Young people don't like advertising very much?
GOOD! Older people don't like it very much either. I'll be turning 36 in about half a month and I absolutely detest it. If you make a good game, money will come to you anyway without having to sell out your product and your soul to scummy advertisers.
Product placements however is a slightly different story. In a driving game for example you probably want to be able to drive, say, a Ferrari for example.
In a skateboarding game you probably want to be able to skate on a board made by...well, whatever company's considered hot and hip in that subculture.
I don't give half a s### sideways about billboards and such junk though, that's just visual noise that consumes memory space that could have been spent better on higher-res textures and more detailed worlds and so on.
Synner @ Jan 31st 2008 4:27PM
Well, Personally, I used to think it lame in movies when they would have what was clearly a pepsi can with all the features on it except the actual word "pepsi".
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So to make things more "true to life", movie makers decided to start using brand placement in the movies.
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Now, oddly enough, every character in movies owns a Mac (despite my being in government service for almost a decade and never having seen other than a dell or HP computer, appearently in movieland, all militaries and gov't agencies are apple fans) According to Tom Clancy, everyone in Las Vegas Drives a Dodge, and I have notised that Any time a character does anything on the Big Screen, The camera is certain to e at teh proper angle to catch the brand of DVD player, Memory card, or Coffee they use.
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It is getting to the point where I am now noticing the placement of product and brands and actually miss what's going on, because I see the obligatory camera pan of the prduct label, and in my irritation, miss something being said.
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PRetty soon it will be like going to the mivies where in addition to product placement, every time you start your game, you have to sit through 5 commercials before the "press start to play" screen.
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TrojanGuy @ Jan 31st 2008 5:24PM
I don't mind advertising in games if (a) it makes sense in the context of the game, (b) isn't blatant, (c) doesn't get in the way of the gaming experience and (d) goes towards making the games more affordable for gamers. a-c are possible, but I have a feeling the money that publishers make from the advertising will never go towards d.