Advertising in Games: Wrong Models?
Advertising has been something integral to the entertainment industry for ages. Radio at first didn't have advertising, but then ads were put in and since hasn't turned back (although there is the exception of satilite radio such as XM). Television hasn't gone a day without ads.
Videogames thus far had trouble implementing ads into games. Some games have tried to put ads into games with little success. I believe it was the latest SWAT game that had Sci-fi's Battlestar Galactica posters put into the game, but players found it ackward and out of place.
When it comes to in-game advertising, Tony Hawk has been one of the more successful. Their ads don't look out of place, but it still is appearent.
The problem is that those ads are static, never changing. Television, radio, and movies get new ads from companies whenever they want to advertise either a new product, a sale or price reduction, or just advertising their company or product as a whole. Only the last can be done in-game.
One solution is something I believe game companies are afraid to do, take a break. Recent consoles and computers have been trying to reduce or eliminate loading times, which would be perfect to put such ads.
However, I wouldn't mind taking a ten or twenty second break between levels to view an ad, as long as I know that it would go toward me not paying either a fee (in the case of online games) or to play a reduced or free game. With episodic formats being explored, I would love just to buy the basic pack for instalation (with the "pilot" episode of course), then get subsequent episodes for free. Then again, I don't mind watching ads on Yahoo's music videos simply because I know it then makes the service free.
But then again, ads on television has been getting into trouble themselves. With more and more people getting Tivos, people have been taking the option to skip any ads that they can. Because of this, televison broadcasters have tried other means of getting ads in, often intruding on the show in which they are broadcasting (FX I have found to be the worst, being they add sound to those ads while the show is playing). Seeing this, such breaks for advertising does seem like an unpopular idea.
The reason I point this out is that the game industry needs something to reduce the costs of development and actual game prices. With Microsoft's recent announcement of no increased prices for next-gen games (see previous post: http://www.livejournal.com/users/political_gamer/18657.html?mode=reply ), it seems like we have missed the bullet on gaming prices for now. But I can't help but worry that the future still shows games with far too high prices and developers that need exceedingly high budgets.
Videogames thus far had trouble implementing ads into games. Some games have tried to put ads into games with little success. I believe it was the latest SWAT game that had Sci-fi's Battlestar Galactica posters put into the game, but players found it ackward and out of place.
When it comes to in-game advertising, Tony Hawk has been one of the more successful. Their ads don't look out of place, but it still is appearent.
The problem is that those ads are static, never changing. Television, radio, and movies get new ads from companies whenever they want to advertise either a new product, a sale or price reduction, or just advertising their company or product as a whole. Only the last can be done in-game.
One solution is something I believe game companies are afraid to do, take a break. Recent consoles and computers have been trying to reduce or eliminate loading times, which would be perfect to put such ads.
However, I wouldn't mind taking a ten or twenty second break between levels to view an ad, as long as I know that it would go toward me not paying either a fee (in the case of online games) or to play a reduced or free game. With episodic formats being explored, I would love just to buy the basic pack for instalation (with the "pilot" episode of course), then get subsequent episodes for free. Then again, I don't mind watching ads on Yahoo's music videos simply because I know it then makes the service free.
But then again, ads on television has been getting into trouble themselves. With more and more people getting Tivos, people have been taking the option to skip any ads that they can. Because of this, televison broadcasters have tried other means of getting ads in, often intruding on the show in which they are broadcasting (FX I have found to be the worst, being they add sound to those ads while the show is playing). Seeing this, such breaks for advertising does seem like an unpopular idea.
The reason I point this out is that the game industry needs something to reduce the costs of development and actual game prices. With Microsoft's recent announcement of no increased prices for next-gen games (see previous post: http://www.livejournal.com/users/politi
posted by SeanM at 12:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home