Analysts predict in-game ads will increase
- Posted June 17th, 2009 at 20:37 EDT by
- 2,445 views
- 26 Comments
In-game ads made headlines last year when President Obama advertised his presidential campaign in Burnout Paradise. While driving along the street, you could see billboards adorned with Obama’s face.
With print, TV, and Internet advertising suffering from lower rates and fewer sales, one might think that ads in video games would decline as well. According to financial analysts at Citigroup, however, there's a good chance this will not be the case.
A GameStop ad in the new open-world action game, Prototype
Speaking to Gamasutra, Citigroup has found many that “advertisers' appetite for in-game marketing appears to be increasing.” The current market for in-game ads is $600 million USD, and Citigroup believes that that market might increase to $1 billion within the next five years.
The price to make games increases, but the price of retail games generally remain stagnant. For this reason, game companies are highly enticed by using ads in their games. Many gamers, on the other hand, dislike real world ads intruding on their gaming experience. Regardless of what we think, business is business and advertisers and game developers need solutions. It doesn't look like game ads are disappearing anytime soon.
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Alpha2
- 9:06pm BST - June 17th, 2009
- 4
You know what I dont get, Burnout paradise hasnt had ANY of the ads they're talking about from what I've seen. I mean we got the Burger King and Diesel ads but nothing new since CompUSA died. I never saw a single Obama ad. Then this weekend a friend with the brand X box said he gets ads all the time. So wait the game that's played over a free network gets no new ads but the game who's online network requires users to pay an annual fee of 50 bucks is plastered with ingame advertising??
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bracomadar |
bracomadar- 9:49pm BST - June 17th, 2009
- 7
I don't mind ads in maps as long as they aren't talking to me, pop up type ads like on the internet, or go against the setting of a game. If you have a game about cavemen, I don't want to see ads for coke on some cave wall. Of course if you have a game for W.W.II and you have a 1940's Coke Cola machine, that would be okay. If it's just a billboard ad, that's perfectly fine. If it reduces the cost of the game, or ads money to a company to make a better game, then I'm all for it.
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Beasley2K |
Beasley2K- 9:51pm BST - June 17th, 2009
- 8
Seems like a good idea from a business viewpoint. Ads are bound to be more successful when encountered in an interactive environment such as a video game world. I'll just have to look out for that GameStop ad, I look forward to chucking civilians at it for mindless and destructive fun...
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AmuthafucknNUTTY |
a-nutty- 10:27pm BST - June 17th, 2009
- 13
well thats nothing new adds are everywhere u look people wear clothing with logos ...their walkin billboards think about it this is nothing new an it doesnt nessarily bother me
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Alpha2
- 11:18pm BST - June 17th, 2009
- 15
There are also supposed to be movie billboards in Burnout Paradise, Yet right now after the Island DLC there are just a bunch of filler posters featureing people from Criterion and addsfor some of the DLC cars... although atleast the Hunter Mech ad kinda looks like an Oldschool transformers box.
Bionic commando has pepsi machines in the first stage and I assume there are other billboads throughout that city. And I'm sure Prototype and Ghostbusters taking place in New york take the opportunities to show huge billboards and neon signs of familiar landmarks as well so in cases like these I dont mind the product placment, it makes sense as much as any of the product placment in MGS4. I mean if you;re characters are going to live in a world based on realism then fake ads would just pull you out of the emmersion.
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subwaydesign
- 12:08am BST - June 18th, 2009
- 16
as long as they don't pop in and cover the entire screen wtih a "press x to continue", or millions are included on the same game, this is not bad news. game feels more realistic (remember the early 90s when soccer games had plain t-shirts?)
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O_G_H
- 2:20am BST - June 18th, 2009
- 18
I rather like it when there are realistically placed billboards. For Burnout or maybe in a setting like Rainbow Six Vegas (for example...I don't think RB6:V had in-game ads). I don't want to see Pepsi ads in the future (for ex. Killzone), but I wouldn't mind for Uncharted. Just make it realistic. And like others have said, no gameplay interruptions and no addressing me directly.
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supamariobrotha |
supamariobrotha- 4:11am BST - June 18th, 2009
- 20
the adds make games a little more realistic so i dont mind
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Intervention
- 4:12am BST - June 18th, 2009
- 21
I like mock ads that only exist in the universe of that particular game. I don't want to see ads for Tampax, Mountain Dew, Pizza Hut or anything else for that matter. Next thing will politcal agenda based ads and that is just not right. The blitz is around us everywhere in RL and on television. I don't want them in the fantasy worlds of video games. Put them on the book or the cover, but not in the D@mn game.
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Duppy_Conqueror
- 7:36am BST - June 18th, 2009
- 22
just one more little reason why i hate the direction games are going in.
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Artanoma |
Phenonemera- 11:48am BST - June 18th, 2009
- 24
In-game advertising is just another way for developers/publishers to cover costs. Rather than have developers/publishers increase game prices due to rising costs, or have these same entities go bankrupt or start losing money hand-over-fist, i think this sort of thing would be acceptable provided that the ads that will be featured and the game in question actually go hand-in-hand.
Nobody wants to go through Tamriel with a dragon flying by dragging along a poster to buy the latest Kotex miracle pads that prevent spillage as you go about your adventuring.
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Playstation_3 |
U83R_1337- 2:48pm BST - June 18th, 2009
- 25
So if the game as been paid for by ADVERTISING then us punters should get it FREE. if the game gets paid for twice then we are being ripped off by the developers.
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