Vendor Logos in Games ?

[Riptides]

After reading one thread on here im curious as to if Nvidia pays certain companies to have its logo be the first thing shown when someone starts up a game ? I know for years now that one could expect to see Video Card logo's on the box of a game, which i would expect is there to increase awareness of compatability between games and the hardware brands.

But i consider when i start a game it is much like starting a movie, if something shown in the first 5 seconds of the game is NOT supposed to be there, then someone must have PAID to have it put there. I wouldn't expect dev's/pub's to put it there just because they were asked kindly to do so or out of the goodness of their own hearts.

And if this is the case, what is there to stop other companies from getting in on this deal, say a racing game with a pepsi ad when you start the game and pepsi logos all thruout *cough jeff cough gordon racing cough*. Even tho i believe Pepsi was the main backer of that game at the time. Whats to stop others from doing this ?

I'm wondering if a day will come when we will see 5 minutes of advertisements when we first start a game *console gamers already get alot of this so i've seen*, but from 3rd party advertisers as well ?

 

[KnightBreed]

I imagine nVidia gave Epic some incentive for the logo. Whether this incentive was monitary or not, I haven't the slightest clue. With development costs for high-profile games in the million+ range, wouldn't you want a better return on investment?

Commercial advertisements would suck, but seeing trailers to future games (like a movie theatre) wouldn't be bad.

As a side note, what does this thread have to do with "3D Technology and Hardware?"

 

[Novdid]

Is there really anything that can stop the developers to put both nvidia and ATI logos on their boxes?

I guess the company that puts up the biggest $$$ will get the intro sequence while the other gets a little tag on the box.

 

[Tagrineth]

I dunno, oh well, I replaced UT2k3's nVidia logo texture with a 3dfx one

I'd hate to be forced to sit through a bunch of trailers and ads whenever I load up a game... but wouldn't it be nifty if they could run trailers while you install! It wouldn't be too intrusive and persistent, but it would get your attention...

 

[nooneyouknow]

As long as it is made clear that they are advertisements, and not endorsements, then I don't see the problem. I think the way it is now is that people see it as (I am talking the average user) endorsement / special support which is usually not the case.

It is very rare a developer will refuse money for placing a logo into their game. I don't know the details of many of them but in the ATI-ISV post regarding the Raven Shield logo placement, he mentioned that Ubi Soft asked for it to be there since the game supported, at the time of development, ATI's TRUFORM (now Matrox supports it as well).

 

[KimB]

I'd hate to be forced to sit through a bunch of trailers and ads whenever I load up a game... but wouldn't it be nifty if they could run trailers while you install! It wouldn't be too intrusive and persistent, but it would get your attention...

Just as long as you can use the escape key still, it won't bother me one bit.

As for trailers during installation, Interplay titles have been running game trailers after installation for a while now. It would be interesting if they'd update to running them during the installation, but that might be non-trivial to do with good performance (You'd probably need to load the entire video into RAM before running it...something that is not normal for media players).

 

[Tagrineth]

As for trailers during installation, Interplay titles have been running game trailers after installation for a while now. It would be interesting if they'd update to running them during the installation, but that might be non-trivial to do with good performance (You'd probably need to load the entire video into RAM before running it...something that is not normal for media players).

...which is why I said it'd be nifty if they could.

I guess it really depends how big the videos are.

It wouldn't be feasible at all to stream the install and the video(s) off the CD/DVD-ROM though... not without another format change or something... unless seek times suddenly take a massive nosedive.

Oh well, it would be good if it could work...

 

[dksuiko]

Are logos even a problem to begin with?

 

[RussSchultz]

Are logos even a problem to begin with?

Only in, for example, BF1942 where the damn publisher logo can't be escaped out of. (Or at least I can't find a way to).

 

[Doomtrooper]

Are logos even a problem to begin with?

Hmmm I think that is a pretty silly question, why would somone buy a game running a ATI card if the game was sponsored, optimized and tweaked with Nvidia hardware.

I was going to get Neverwinter Nights a while back but didn't because of the vendor bias...and yes games are about graphics, and since NWN has alot of water in it..the visual experience is lowered.
Now I just got NWN nights and played without the patch and with the patch and what a difference.
So no I don't think they belong there at all, the reverse goes for a ATI title on Nvidia hardware.
The whole idea is to trick 'the graphic newbie' to drop his current card and get the brand the game is promoting..and now we have developers as card salesman.

 

[Riptides]

Only in, for example, BF1942 where the damn publisher logo can't be escaped out of. (Or at least I can't find a way to).

This is the current game that chapped my hide about the logos when it starts up. You have to see both logos, dev and pub, then an intro movie, which can be skipped, then another page with all the logo's on it yet again.

To fix this, if you go into the games Movie folder, rename the **.bik files to **.bak and it just skips them.

About what this has to do with 3d tech and hardware, i thought the same thing after posting this morn, and figured
1. It's the Holidays, and dead right now, so might be a good discussion piece.
2. Nvidia *a hardware company* is putting it's Logo's into the first 5 seconds of starting a game up. And i truly want to know others thoughts and opinions.

I remember the days of firing up Glide games and seeing the 3dfx logo appear. Wasn't this more in the 3dfx drivers tho ?

 

[Tagrineth]

I remember the days of firing up Glide games and seeing the 3dfx logo appear. Wasn't this more in the 3dfx drivers tho ?

Yup! The 3dfx splash screen is within the drivers ONLY. So you'd only see it if you were running a 3dfx card already. Kinda driving the point home.

Makes more sense that way too...

 

[Tahir2]

I blame retailers. The markup is amazing. Maybe dev's wouldnt have to whore themselves to videocard gfx vendors if retailers took less of a cut.

I was quoted a figure of 60% markup by some PC World ex employee. If this is true that's kind of sickening IMHO.

What if there were other ads like Pepsi/Cola? One way some developers are able to place ads within games is racing games but this is because they get a lot of data from car manufacturers... I think that is OK.

 

[dksuiko]

Hmmm I think that is a pretty silly question, why would somone buy a game running a ATI card if the game was sponsored, optimized and tweaked with Nvidia hardware.

I don't think the question is silly at all. And we're talking about the logos only, the logos on the box and in the game. The Neverwinter Nights case you mentioned is more than just a simple logo on the box or in the game. I just don't see the big problem with logos. I mean.. it's just a damn logo. When it's in the game, I can just press ESC or just wait a couple seconds for it to pass. When it's on the box, why should I even care? I'll probably never see the box again once I shelf it. It's just advertising.

The whole idea is to trick 'the graphic newbie' to drop his current card and get the brand the game is promoting..and now we have developers as card salesman.

I'm not sure about the whole decieving issue you brought up, but the idea of advertising IS to get your brand recognized so that the consumers will buy it. What exactly is wrong with that? And how is a simple logo going to trick somebody? I think you're making logos a bigger deal than they really are. Sure, logos will get the advertising brand recognized.. but what's wrong with that?

 

[RussSchultz]

Are logos even a problem to begin with?

Hmmm I think that is a pretty silly question, why would somone buy a game running a ATI card if the game was sponsored, optimized and tweaked with Nvidia hardware.

Because its the game that's interesting, and not the eye candy? (NWN is a perfect example. I never even noticed the water, and it didn't change how I played it)

 

[RussSchultz]

I blame retailers. The markup is amazing. Maybe dev's wouldnt have to whore themselves to videocard gfx vendors if retailers took less of a cut.

I was quoted a figure of 60% markup by some PC World ex employee. If this is true that's kind of sickening IMHO.

Retailers are also the ones that get screwed with inventory on items that don't sell.

 

[Tagrineth]

I was quoted a figure of 60% markup by some PC World ex employee. If this is true that's kind of sickening IMHO.

60% markup is hellishly low. Both my parents work retail...

 

[RussSchultz]

I was quoted a figure of 60% markup by some PC World ex employee. If this is true that's kind of sickening IMHO.

IHVs aim for 100% mark up (50% margin).

 

[Tahir2]

Right I may have mixed up my terminology since I dont come from a retail background. Sorry guys!

By 60% I mean that is how much profit they make per software sale. Does that sound more reasonable? Or should I say unreasonable, heh.

Anyways .... when you hear of good games getting canned e.g. Outcast 2, ERP's racing game etc you realise that it is a tough and unfair world. Dog eat Dog... if ATI start making more of an effort to get developers to use their tools and gfx cards features (which I am sure they are doing aggresively now) then maybe we will see their own version of the way it's meant to be played.

 

[Ty]

I was quoted a figure of 60% markup by some PC World ex employee. If this is true that's kind of sickening IMHO.

Retailers are also the ones that get screwed with inventory on items that don't sell.

Not necessarily true for both of the above. Retailers also charge for shelf space (which can expire if a product slips) & they have Price Guarantees to help them if a product doesn't move. At least this is what I gleened from our Marketing & Sales Department.