CoD: Finest Hour Developer Partners with Massive, Inc. to Deliver In-Game Ads

[fitbabits]

Next Generation (http://www.next-gen.biz) has the details (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1894&Itemid=2).

Spark CEO Craig Allen said, "The revenues that we will generate through in-game advertising will provide the funds necessary to support greater innovations in development that will ultimately benefit our gaming audience."
This makes me nervous. I see in-game advertising as a two-edged sword - on one hand, it has the potential to increase the realism and to further pull you into game worlds if done right; on the other, it could be implemented really haphazardly and lead to inappropriate ads appearing in some of our favorite franchises.

[DigitalFirefly]

how about using ads to lower the price of games.

[[Jez]]

This would be hard for fantasy games, I don't want to be seeing Ford ads in NWN2

[fitbabits]

how about using ads to lower the price of games.
That's what the developers would want us gamers to believe, but we all know that it's the bottom line that concerns these people, not the people buying their games.

[The Iron Weasel]

Yeah...how about using that money to make a good game.

[Cha-Ka]

To this idea I say No, no, a thousand times no!!

how about using ads to lower the price of games.

You're dreaming. If they want to start offering FREE games that include adds, well then we'd be closer to the sort of advertising we see on TV. If, on the other hand, I pay $50 and have to put up with adds that are unavoidable in the game I paid for? That's exactly the sort of thing that keeps me out of movie theaters these days.

[drakkarim]

i love this legal talk.

"greater innovations in development" = better toys for our offices.

[DigitalFirefly]

It's so annoying in a movie when they throw in a product shot so blatantly and it kills your focus on the movie. From that point I keep wondering how much they paid for the ad.

[Cha-Ka]

It's so annoying in a movie when they throw in a product shot so blatantly and it kills your focus on the movie. From that point I keep wondering how much they paid for the ad.

Right, and don't forget the TV adds some theatres now show as standard with all $10-$12 movies. That's the shit I can't fucking stand.

[jacktion]

A two-edged sword? Pardon me, but are you dim? This is nothing but bad! How in the hell can advertising help realism!
"Oh I was playing Call of Duty and just wasn't feeling it, but then I saw some Nazis drinking coffee in a starbucks! Thank you corporate entity!"
Advertising is the scourge of our time. It does nothing but take your money away and give it to someone else. And it usually hurts whatever artistic enterprise that it is involved with at the same time.

mutter... a two-edged sword he says... mutter...

[MSUStud911]

how about using ads to lower the price of games.

QFT. I'm sick of this kinda thing simply lining the pockets of those who use it. I'm completely onboard with in-game ads if it lowers the price, but it is complete BS to pay $60 and be bombarded with ads.

[Beelzebud]

I'll never pay a premium price for a game that contains advertising.

Thats a stupid fucking idea...

[Phanto]

Quote:
"The revenues that we will generate through in-game advertising will provide the funds necessary to support greater innovations in development that will ultimately benefit our gaming audience."

If this is true then they should decrease the cost of a retail game to $5 or even $10 less that cost us right now.

[Speed_D]

How in the hell can advertising help realism!
Sports / Racing games. But even then you'd have to sign up a sufficient number of advertisers to look like the real thing, rather than blatantly displaying a single logo.

I think most of the time it would be done poorly. In particular I'm remembering that Microsoft published football game when the original XBox came out -- the instant replays were always brought to you by "Taco Bell". It was really lame.

[Zurik]

So basically they're saying they need this because next gen games are expensive to make? So what happens when you make a new game with ads and everyone avoids it? I'm so tired of being bombarded with ads everywhere I go, and now one of my only reliefs from them are taking a hit? THIS is what will make gamers become violent, forget GTA games.

[Thumper]

A two-edged sword? Pardon me, but are you dim? This is nothing but bad! How in the hell can advertising help realism!
"Oh I was playing Call of Duty and just wasn't feeling it, but then I saw some Nazis drinking coffee in a starbucks! Thank you corporate entity!"
Advertising is the scourge of our time. It does nothing but take your money away and give it to someone else. And it usually hurts whatever artistic enterprise that it is involved with at the same time.

mutter... a two-edged sword he says... mutter...

Your example might be a *tad* over the top. As someone said, ads in a racing game, or maybe a modern urban shooter would add to the realism (rather than seeing advertisements for PopFizz Cola!). However, I'm not sure how they plan to incorporate realistic ads into a world war 2 game... How many products that we have now were around back then? and how many of THOSE companies want to have their hallowed trademark from the glory days of their company emblazoned across a bombed out nazi factory?

Maybe small web-like adds in a server browser that might be of interest to the community (like those in battle.net) could have a larger place. But if I start seeing items called [Alienware's Bastard Sword of the Whale] in my latest rpg... /puke

[Worldcrafter]

In game ads can be integrated without being overly noticable. This usually happens in sports titles. However, as has been stated, I don't think this approach will work for a majority of games. I also doubt these ads will make the games cheaper for consumers, though the developer/publishers would have us believe the ads are reducing the costs of producing the games, so otherwise the game would cost more, or not be released.

Free or cheap games with in game advertising sounds like an interesting idea, and is already being done with Anarchy Online. You can play for free, but there are in-game ads in the form of billboards. It's a cool idea, and seems to work well. Too bad I didn't like the game.

[ezra]

Bullshit. If they want more money, they can spend their time making games instead of graphics demos. Hopefully any selfrespecting developer will not pull this kind of shit.


Edit: Just noticed the title - ads in Call of duty? What kind of realistic ad are they going to have? Any sort of advertisement in a historical game like what will kill realism completely.

[Roc Ingersol]

I'm all for it.
All other forms of ad-funded content are 'free' or come with marginal subscription prices. So we're gonna get purely ad-funded games from this, right? Maybe $5 outta pocket for these games, right?

Oh? This is just like the publisher's fight against the Doctrine of First Sale - where they want to line their pockets at the expense of the consumer? Then FUCK YOU Guys.

[Voodoo]

Ad's in games. This is so funny! As you know, we all pay HUGE prices for going to the movies now.

Most theaters do those promotional ad runs before the projector even starts rolling, but this does not lower the price of anything for the customer...

Promotional ads & product placement inside a movie does nothing for the price of a theater using the movie to project at their theater...

Even broadcast television is getting silly with Ads. Now, not only do we have commercials BUT product placements are now pretty common inside the shows themselves... And those shows are mostly rated at 45 minutes now... I bet in a few years they will be "hour long" shows which contain 30 minutes of commercials and 30 minutes of show with frequent product placement.

I'm just wondering how long it is going to be before product placement starts to show up in porno with Pepsi ass tatoos or condom box zoom-ins.

:)

[Ailer]

Have you ever watched smallville? I swear to god its like 39 min of show. Of course there will be a time when product placement + traditional commercials + commercials in corner of screen will be the norm. God damnit.

[Cha-Ka]

Oh, and if this model of add-sponsored games catches on...how long do you think it will be before the advertisers start exerting pressure on developers to lower the amount of violence and whatnot to ensure the product is a suitable vessel to advertise their company's products?

Again, 1000x NO!

[UnderHero5]

I'm already PAYING fucking money for a game. Now I must have shit advertised in a product I paid for?

It's one of the reasons I can't stand watching tv, reading magazines, etc.

Mark my words, 2 years down the road we're going to have COMMERCIALS durring our loading screens. You know damn well it will happen.

If the advertisements go any further than posters/billboards in games (if contextually correct) then I will not buy the games.

Lightspeed Breifs!

[Royal Fool]

BLAH BLAH BLAH FEED ME MONEY BLAH BLAH BLAH
Fuck you. And Die.

[The Iron Weasel]

Lightspeed Breifs!

God that was a great episode of Futurama....but then again most of the episodes of Futurama were great.

[*Legion*]

Here's a simple fact that every single person seems to miss:

"In-game advertising" does not automatically mean "during gameplay advertising"

The Red Bull ads in the menus and loading screens of Wipeout XL being an obvious example.

Thank you. You may now return to your regularly-scheduled knee-jerk rants.

[HellbenderX]

Here's a simple fact that every single person seems to miss:

"In-game advertising" does not automatically mean "during gameplay advertising"

The Red Bull ads in the menus and loading screens of Wipeout XL being an obvious example.

Thank you. You may now return to your regularly-scheduled knee-jerk rants.
What part of the "I don't want to see ads anywhere in a game I just paid full price for" argument are you missing, exactly?

-H

[Sl1pstream]

What part of the "I don't want to see ads anywhere in a game I just paid full price for" argument are you missing, exactly?

-H

But what if the main character uses a cell phone from some real-life brand? That's advertising too and I don't really have a problem with something like that.

[HellbenderX]

But what if the main character uses a cell phone from some real-life brand? That's advertising too and I don't really have a problem with something like that.
No! Suits start with little things like licensed cell phone models and it goes from there and gets out of hand. Honestly, if you lose your immersion in a game because the main character is holding a generic looking cell phone instead of a RAZR, you're just too picky.

-H

[Sl1pstream]

I'm not saying it hurts the immersion, but if it stays at those things, I don't really see any problems with it.

[Busted_Astromech]

And there's also the fact that real products can very easily hurt immersion even when used correctly. If I see a Coke machine then I'm not going to pass over it, I'm going to be ripped out of the game to realize that money changed hands to alter this fictional world--in short I notice it more because while walking through a fake company using fake guns I find a real soda machine....and it is out of place.