Console companies considering ads in F2P titles *spawn

There have been attempts to put advertising into games in the past and it's failed. There's very little overlap between our real-world products and services and our game worlds, so product placement just couldn't fly.

I'm guessing this is more like mobile games with interstitial adverts. These are actually sorely missed on other platforms IMO. Someone can create a simple shooter on mobile and monetise it via adverts, but not on PC and console. On PC, you could go with something like itch.io and donations, but otherwise you need an upfront price or in-game consumables. The evolution of another class of monetisation isn't necessarily a bad thing so long as it's confined to games that warrant it and doesn't interrupt paid titles.

 

I think this has come up many times before.

I will just restate my feelings. If I'm playing a call of duty game and I run past a billboard and one is for a fictional soda company or one is for pepsi well I couldn't really care less. If it's simple product placement to me it isn't a big deal. If they however start to name weapons after brands or I'm playing a fantasy role playing game and there is a modern add for pepsi i'd be pissed. But if they had say a person with a cart selling a Pepsi Tonic that fit into the theme of the game I'd be fine with it.

 

It does work in a few cases. The important thing with the inclusion of something like an "ad" is that it is appropriate to the setting and not intrusive.

That means it should be more about product placement than overt advertising. The Yakuza games for example have tons of product placement in the game that fits within the setting of the game that serves to passively advertise the products on display (drinks, foods, etcs.) It feels natural and non-intrusive and even enhances the setting because it is appropriate and expected that you would see these exact products if you were wandering around Tokyo.

OTOH - seeing Monster energy drinks in Death Stranding was weird as it was just one product. It would have seemed more natural if there were also other products (like multiple other drinks) in use in that world other than just Monster energy.

Billboards at the side of a highway would seem to be a natural fit. But there needs to be a large enough variety that it mimics what you'd expect to see in the real world. If it's just one or two different billboard ads constantly being reshown, then it sticks out and feels unnatural ... unwanted.

That's the problem with most games. Product placement and advertisement is either intrusive or it isn't varied enough with only a few key products being advertised in game. When it's done well, as it is in the Yakuza games, it's omnipresent with products appearing as they would in the real world and thus becomes just another part of the setting. When it's not done well, as in Death Stranding, it sticks out as a sore thumb and draws far too much attention to itself. When it's intrusive, like some advertising pop-up that you get in some mobile games, it's absolutely horrendous.

Regards,
SB

 

I have no real issues with smooth integrated ads but I wouldn't be surprised at all if this isn't about these kind of ads but ads/stories to sell agendas. People who play console a lot hardly watch TV which means the normal system propaganda doesn't reach them easily. Just the last 2 years have been the most obnoxious propaganda period on TV I have ever experienced in my 51 years. These people really went full out and they missed a lot hardcore gamers...

 

Those are in-game ads, product placement. They've been doable for years in various ways. I think, or maybe am assuming, that these new platforms are for the kinds of adverts present on mobile which need something new. As for MS it seems to be an intention to expand the MS advertising platform, that should mean having an advert that's served to both mobile and console (and PC) rather than setting up a deal to incorporate a product in a game's assets.

If it's not mobile-style interstitial ads, it's nothing new nor newsworthy AFAICS.