Ads: Paving the way for Nextgen Game Development Cost Increases?
- Thread starter TheChefO
- Start date
I agree 100%.
I will never pay full price for a game that is a work of fiction with real world ads in it.
Loading screen ads are a horrible idea.
They would mean that loading times will be slowed down to make you see all the ad (if it is a video one) or keep it in front of you as long as possible.
It would be even ruder if a PC game with loading screen ads came out and forced me to wait 30secs before I could play no matter how fast my PC loaded the level.
Prophecy2k
Veteran
I'm inclined to believe you're right Shifty.
Interesting point and one which would follow the plan I'd outlined.
If as a publisher/developer, you get ad revenue on one platform and none on the other, do you think the pubs/devs might pressure that platform to provide this new source of revenue?
It isn't simply a money grab (or shouldn't be).
There should be perks for all involved which offset the inconvenience of the ads, or it will indeed be a deterrent.
Bottom line for this concept is that increased revenue is needed.
Advertising (in some form) is in most other entertainment mediums.
The larger the market of eyeballs, the more potential money.
As we've seen in other advertising deals, they can be quite lucrative (billions/year).
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I fully understand and agree that ads should be relevant, unobtrusive, and quid pro quo.
Nobody wants to see a tampon commercial between rounds of Gears online which normally take 35 seconds to load, but now take a full minute.
But advertisers aren't stupid, and there's a reason you don't see tampons while watching Football on Sunday either. That would be a waste of their money pushing this product on Gears gamers. Between rounds of YourShape or Zumba? You could make a case for this.
But as I said, if ads are just dropped in on top of the $60 retail game with nothing in return for the inconvenience on gamers, they will absolutely piss people off.
Advertising (in some form) is in most other entertainment mediums.
The larger the market of eyeballs, the more potential money.
As we've seen in other advertising deals, they can be quite lucrative (billions/year).
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I fully understand and agree that ads should be relevant, unobtrusive, and quid pro quo.
Nobody wants to see a tampon commercial between rounds of Gears online which normally take 35 seconds to load, but now take a full minute.
But advertisers aren't stupid, and there's a reason you don't see tampons while watching Football on Sunday either. That would be a waste of their money pushing this product on Gears gamers. Between rounds of YourShape or Zumba? You could make a case for this.
But as I said, if ads are just dropped in on top of the $60 retail game with nothing in return for the inconvenience on gamers, they will absolutely piss people off.
This was in 2006. Times change, new members join, opinions change, trends change.
You have a point WRT why this revenue generator hasn't been introduced before now, but I think a big part of that is the games online audience wasn't worth the investment years ago.
We now have a total of 85million "users" online with xbl and psn.
That's a big audience to ignore.
Your link shows MS is recognizing the opportunity and taking advantage in the dashboard.
Their approach may be a direct result of their analysis that xb360 spends more time being a media hub than a games machine.
Publishers and developers would have to work to get ads in their games and for this effort, they would want a cut of a standard ad placement strategy.
Perhaps THIS is the reason we haven't seen movement in this direction.
If a game like COD MW3 had ads, and BF3 didn't, well that might have caused a sales shift ...
The quandary for a successful title like COD using ads is that they are already wildly successful and profitable and so the need for ad support is lessened. Their approach has been more of a sell-up via map packs and I think it was called "elite". (?)
So then, if it were pitched as a standard of the platform, pubs/devs would be excited across the board as no competitive advantage with other games would exist. They would also likely push this on the other platform to introduce them as standard as well.
Negotiations on price structure would be interesting, but I think having a limited contract (2 years) to analyze how such a revenue generator was working for all involved would be a good way to get the ball rolling without fear of either party getting screwed.
"The research goal was to determine both the value of online video advertising inside of casual games and the most efficient use of video advertising in casual games. In partnership with advertiser Zappos.com, casual game players across the NeoEdge Network were intercepted with a survey request after game play."
It goes on to say that game players associated the brand with the advertiser of free-to-play games. So yeah, an advertiser footing the bill for a $1 game gets a lot of appreciation, while casual gamers in the social networks on browsers which already abound with advertising (and for which they probably have one or more obtrusive Web Helper Bars added that they never wanted) don't find it off-putting.
Here are some games. What sort of advertising could be added in a loading screen (I'd go with static images, not animations as that'll definitely have a negative effect) without being ubtrusive?
Uncharted
Gears
COD
FIFA
Skyrim
Zelda
Mariokart
In some case something like Nickleodeon or Nike would fit in. In other cases I can't see any advert being unoffensive. If you compare to your research above where the player is getting something for free from the advertiser, that points more to a branded DLC option being welcome. We've seen games created by sponsors - I think Burger King did some XB360 games early on. We've seen sponsored deals like Mountain Dew sales. You can give away content. This isn't proving at all popular though. LBP/LBP2 were golden opportunities to have commercially sponsored content. There was one Prius level. I can't think of much more. Why is Coke and Adidas and whoever creating LBP levels? There just seems a reluctance to invade the gaming space.
I reckon the first real steps towards this will come from companies sponsoring DLC, long before loading-screen ads and the like. Imagine some brand wanting major recognition in the male gamer demographic. Pay for a Modern Warfare DLC and give it away free, and they'll get excellent recognition. That seems the most direct and obvious opportunity. It's not something that's really being tried though. After Lucozade and Penguin product placements in the 90s, and the Cool Spot game, it looked like brand-supported gaming had launched, but it hasn't grown at all. It remains extremely niche outside of social network/casual free gaming. It's not like anyone's even experiementing. Offer both paid-for and free ad-supported games on Live!/PSN and see how they do. Why's that not happening??
I'll respond to the rest of your post in a bit but as for why advertisers and platform holders seem to kind of mull about ...
It's a very different medium.
Getting product marketing managers to buy into spending money on a "games" platform isn't an easy sell.
You need big numbers with a big plan to seriously sell them on it.
As I mentioned in the post above, there are also revenue sharing contracts to negotiate with publishers/developers.
Technically implementing these ads isn't the problem, it's getting these issues resolved that is holding back games advertising.
At least for the Gears series, this happened twice. For Gears 1, Discovery (lol) sponsored one of the map packs, and for Gears 3, Paramount sponsored the Versus Map pack along with some weapon skins (related to Mission: Impossible marketing).
I'd have to see demographics data of their consumers but I'd guess:
Uncharted
Footware, Beverage, Auto, History Channel, Discovery
Gears
Alcoholic Beverage, Fitness apparel, Auto, SpikeTV, UFC
COD
Hunting gear, Beverage, Auto - (possibly many more as the audience is large)
FIFA
Footware, Beverage, Auto, Fastfood, Sporting Events - (pretty much any commercial you'd see watching a game on tv)
Skyrim
Beverage, SyFy (cable channel), Snack Foods, Food Delivery - (a tricky one given the content, but one thing is for sure ... long playing session = food delivery + snacks)
Zelda + Mariokart
Sony, Microsoft
- (seriously, given the broad nature of these two titles, TV, movie, beverage, fastfood ads would all work)
Speaking of this, I'm not sure why interactive media couldn't be provided in the ad framework instead of static (similar to geometry wars at load screen but with a Dorito chip instead of a space ship
).Also, I'm not convinced that 15 second video commercials wouldn't be acceptable.
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