The eve of in-game advertising

by Shawn Schuster Apr 26th 2008 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Super-hero, Business models, Economy, MMO industry, Opinion, Free-to-play, Casual, Academic, Spy

In-game advertising is a touchy subject to most players, but it's becoming an inevitable reality. With the increasingly-high costs of game production, developers need to seek other means of revenue besides the trusty subscription fee from players. This is where the in-game ads come in. It's a way for game companies to harmlessly offset production cost inflation.

Wait, did we say harmlessly?

The truth of the matter is, the majority of players are skeptical on the effectiveness and necessity of in-game ads. They're distracting and need to be tailored for a specific target-market in order to be even halfway believable. For instance, you can't have a Coke ad in World of Warcraft. Actually, any billboard ad would just not work in a fantasy setting. So for this reason, are we going to see an influx (even more) of sci-fi MMOs created for the sole purpose of including in-game advertising?

Tags: advertising, billboard, in-game-advertising, opinion, sci-fi, subscription

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Lagwolf said on 9:37AM 4-26-2008

Don't get the big deal of in-game advertising. Game companies have been flogging their own stuff in games for years. In the midst of getting shot at you barely notice anyway. If in-game advertising helps get us all quality games that is what matters after all.

A bit of fuss about nothing.

W. Graves said on 10:38AM 4-26-2008

In game advertising is a little invasive, but doing it on load screens and other areas, who really cares?

Rich said on 12:35PM 4-26-2008

MxO had in game advertising for movies and other stuff almost 2 1/2 years ago. It was hardly noticeable and made the world feel more real.

zulika said on 10:06PM 4-26-2008

Rich beat me to it. MxO did it in a cheesy way as I think only WB movies were put on billboards. I remember seeing Constatine ones everywhere.

Rich said on 10:27PM 4-26-2008

There were WB movies and Under Armor ads all over the city.

Scott said on 11:28PM 4-26-2008

On the coat-tails of Rich, I think in game advertising makes the world feel more real. There's one map in particular that I remember in Counter Strike where there was a 'rotating' billboard... meaning it would switch between two ads every couple of seconds. Granted, I'm pretty sure they were fake ads, but it made the map feel more realistic.

If they're able to do it in a way that wouldn't be a Coke ad in WoW, as mentioned above, I think it's fine. I don't think it'll be effective, but I think it'll be fine.