Sony to enhance in-game advertising
- Posted December 7th, 2007 at 04:41 EDT by
- 1,907 views
- 17 Comments
Recently we reported that Electronic Arts sees in-game ads as something of relevance in the distance future; that story can be read here. To the contrary, there are those such as Sony who believes in-game ads can be something very profitable.
An example of this is through the PSN title PAIN; a distinctive game that encourages users to inflict as much damage onto the main character as possible, which is dissimilar to most games. Most games require the player to conserve the main character but PAIN encourages the player to create a realm of soreness through various stunt techniques such as sling-shooting the player into the pavement and buildings. During this process, the gamer will fly pass virtual billboards that features various real life advertisements that constantly change.
Through this, Sony wants to charge rates to advertisers depending on the number of people playing the game at any moment. If an abundance of people are inflicting pain, then rates would be high, if a small amount of people is playing, then rates would be low. In process, this would introduce a new ratings system to ad pricing for Sony videogame titles. At the moment, in game ad rates are centered on projected sales and success. Nielsen Games, a division of Nielsen Media Research will measure how many people are currently playing and what ads they can see at a particular time.
"Currently we can tell you who is playing their PlayStation 3 and other consoles, when they're playing them and what they're playing," said Guzman, Business Development & Product Strategy Director. "We can't get inside the game, at least not yet."
Unfortunately for Sony, but fortunate for the industry as a whole, Nielsen is not 100% exclusive to Sony when it comes to this:
"I hope we can extend this paradigm. Advertisers want to reach game players across all media," said Jonathan Epstein, CEO of Double Fusion, an In-Game advertising network in San Francisco. "Advertisers aren't saying they want Sony players or Xbox players, they want gamers. For this to work it has to be across all platforms, including the PC." Double Fusion places most of its ads on PCs.
"This allows clients to now purchase media with confidence, if it works," added Matthew Ammirati, president of Ammirati here, who has worked with video game clients such as Marc Ecko and Atari. "It's always been scary for clients to buy these new forms of media, but now they've got something concrete and measurable."
To place things back into Sony’s direction, Darlene Kindle, director for the new Sony in-game advertising unit, gave details to how this could benefit the company’s demographic.
"You can imagine people like Lionsgate, who publish Blu-ray movies, getting involved. Media, creative agencies and brands all want to be involved in this program,”
As videogames becomes a mainstream entertainment outlet such as movies and music, many outside businesses may want to capitalize on the new trend in hopes of making an extra buck. Electronic Arts says this is something that shouldn’t be considered now, but in the future, but others such as Sony and Nielsen Media Research believes this to be a hot community in the current.
Source: Adweek
Comments
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snake_eater |
MetalGearHMN- 7:06am GMT - December 7th, 2007
- 3
I think this is a great idea. Imagine walking around Liberty City in GTA IV and seeing real billboards. This trend will only serve to increase the player's level of immersion. I'm sure there will be much more subtle methods of conveying advertisements than just billboards. Perhaps Liquid Ocelot in MGS4 will prefer revolvers of a certain make and model. A subtle message, but prevalent none the less. By the way I should write these articles. These authors make more grammatical errors than my alcoholic uncle.
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snake_eater |
MetalGearHMN- 7:10am GMT - December 7th, 2007
- 5
@zarajoe
If by ads you mean commercials, say during load screens, then I agree with you. That would be a terrible idea. I'd hate to learn the benefits of Charmin Ultra while Warhawk is loading.
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SolsticeZero |
SolsticeZero- 9:43am GMT - December 7th, 2007
- 6
I don't mind billboards and things like that. They were doing that back in the Jet Moto 2 days. But commercials I am strongly against.
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kcgreatfox |
El_Senor- 10:37am GMT - December 7th, 2007
- 7
this actually sounds like a good idea to me. if it can offset the larger production costs for next-gen games so the companies no longer have to charge 60 bucks for each title, then i'm all for it! so what if the billboards are for real companies, or you see a couple mountain dew vending machines here and there? One game that could have REALLY benefited from in game ads is spider-man 3. They could have sold space on virtually every bilboard in new york city! Maybe the game wouldnt have come out so horribly if they had gotten some extra cash from ads to go towards development.
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reccodog |
reccodog- 4:00pm GMT - December 7th, 2007
- 11
@zarajoe: I do kinda like the idea that sony could put in avertisments for extra money which= More money into games= better games. however this go's towerds @snake_eater, I strongly agree with you. Now that I think of it I wouldn't want a ad such as Viagra or somthing to pop up while playing HAZE or Warhawk or somthing like that.
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The Cleaner
- 4:06pm GMT - December 7th, 2007
- 12
Sony to "enhance" ???
If this is Sony's way of enhancing then Im keen to pay for pirate copies that have had the in game advertising trash stripped out. Seriously, I'll pay good money for a good pirated game without the advertisements.
Sony & the publishers who want advertising better start pricing games competitive with superior pirated versions of the games - IE Make them free...
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leeman99 |
Bedsidelee- 6:21pm GMT - December 7th, 2007
- 15
They need to, to get some revenue in because unfortunately they ain't selling enough ps3’s, and in there own country coming fourth behind the psp ha ha ha the end is near fanboys, do yourselves a favour go and buy an xbox360 just in case sony lose even more exclusives lol.
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InfernoReaper |
GrimDarkling- 1:33am GMT - December 8th, 2007
- 16
I don't mind in-game advertising as long as it's in the right games and we get something back IE: cheaper games Sony! I'm pretty sure all those racing games could come down about $10 a game with the money they got from advertisers. I won't pay $60 to play Billboard City.
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PS3sR2DEAR
- 2:53am GMT - December 10th, 2007
- 17
Billboards ? I think there ok, as long as its not forced down my throat and I can Blow the crap out of it.
In Game advertising ? LIke a commercial ? NO NEVER
And where is the Discount on the game prices for the advertising in games already ? Nowhere, exactly....
How about a new label/rating on pack that includes advertising warnings ie (Adverts), and how about games going Platinum in half the time since there full of annoying ads!
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