In-game advertising

[MerscomMan]

Anyone have any experience putting advertising in a downloadable or casual game? I saw Gamehouse is working with Eyeblaster but most of the other in-game advertising seems to be focused on the full-price, core space. Anyone have any experience, good or bad, or recommendations?

[rike]

Spyware: It's in the game!

http://digg.com/gaming_news/BattleField_2142_spyware_included

The spyware is network code installed or more likely integrated into the BF2142 codebase to deliver bf2142 advertising ads/messages to the game. From what I can tell there will be an ad with link displayed at the bottom of the server connection screen ... and possibly for in-game ads.

EA partnered with IGA Worldwide to generate additional revenue thru in-game advertising. This in-game advertising protocol will communicate with IGA servers to get ads and to report the time the ad is viewed by a given IP address. Where the reported IP address is used to geo-locate the victim ... or gamer ... to serve appropriate ads.

The gaming community in some regards was up in arms regarding in-game ads. So one could run the risk of being looked at poorly for the inclusion of this type of advertising.

I'm not sure what the privacy and/or legal issues are but EA had included an additional EULA to cover this activity. Here is the EULA from EA/IGA included in the box:

http://www.hostimage.org/img/82432.jpg

But I got to believe that in-game ads are going to become commonplace. And an additional revenue stream has to good ... right.

[cliffski]

I will never, ever buy any game that does this. I play games to escape from the real world, not be sold stuff.
Imagine if novels had adverts on every 30th page?
Its also a way to set ourselves apart from the EA style games. Don't do it.

[Sharpfish]

Would never do it myself and would avoid any game that did, if possible.

[soniCron]

Even if it was free? Do you watch television? Read magazines? Listen to the radio? Watch films in the theater? Play on-line Flash games?

[Sharpfish]

Even if it was free?

No.. I DETEST being "advertised at". I turn the adverts off (or at least mute them) when I watch TV. Also bear in mind I'm English and we haven't quite had as much Advertising for as many years as IN YOUR FACE as the US has.

If a game was free and it was a quality triple A title, of course I would play it but it would annoy me. I wouldn't pay to be advertised at as some games are doing right now!

>Do you watch television?

Yep and I mute the adverts or turn away - not ideal for an INTERACTIVE experience in game I can assure you.

>Read magazines?

Sometimes, but I skip to the content I don't have to sit through it or feel it encroaching on the environments and escapist quality as it would in a game.

>Listen to the radio?

Actualy, no I don't listen to the radio.. ever (not these days) any music I listen to is personally selected or sought out by myself to suit my mood or tastes, either mp3s, cds or whatever but nothing that is so passive as the radio.

>Watch films in the theater?

Yes and the 30 minutes of adverts annoy the hell out of me, my car could be being broken into while I see adverts for stuff I don't want.. why do you think everyone talks during them? I don't want to "talk" during my immersive gaming as a form of adver-defense.

>Play on-line Flash games?

No.. I don't play online flash games, I'm not that keen on them. I do check out the flash games that you guys post around here sometimes just cos i'm curious, but as a gamer I've got tons of stuff I'd rather play

Hope that answers your questions Daniel ;P

[Jack Norton]

Even if it was free? Do you watch television? Read magazines? Listen to the radio? Watch films in the theater? Play on-line Flash games?

I got paytv because had enough of advertising on normal tv. Life is so short, not worth wasting it that way... and I bet many people play games also because they have no ads.

[soniCron]

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of advertising, either, but I think it's kinda silly for anyone to say they're simply not going to play games with advertising, especially when they consume many other forms of media in which advertising permeates. But the real kicker is to consider that our entire livelihood thrives on advertising... ;)

[rike]

We are talking dynamic advertising here ... but there is static also.

Are you also opposed to cutting a deal with Coke/Pepsi to skin your in-game cans as a Coke/Pepsi can or skin a sign/billboard that is in a game with a real product. Assuming as a developer/publisher you could generate additional revenue?

[Sharpfish]

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of advertising, either, but I think it's kinda silly for anyone to say they're simply not going to play games with advertising, especially when they consume many other forms of media in which advertising permeates. But the real kicker is to consider that our entire livelihood thrives on advertising... ;)

Sure, I understand. Advertise the PRODUCT don't advertise IN the product though. :)

And games, as anyone who has really thought about or played them long enough realise, have as much to do with books/mags/movies and radio as I have to do with space travel.

Superficially they are just another media enterainment product. Intrinsically they are vastly different mediums that need as much abstraction from the "real world" as possible to allow the player to concentrate, enjoy and be "one" with the challenge or experience he is interacting with. Sure it's easy to forget that these days with the more and more slack attitudes to what a game is really about but those dudes back in the early days had a vision and it was not supposed to result in playing a game and seeing adverts that "pulled you out" of the game at every turn.

The *ONLY* good place for adverts in games is to enhance realism in a game that is intending to be a copy of reality (in it's environments) I.E something like Dead Rising or GTA could benifit for some (if free or reduced price!) but equally they do just as well with fake/abstract and imaginative brands and products within their worlds.

[Sharpfish]

Oh another way of looking at it, less convoluted:

Imagine you are reading the latest Stephen King novel, the plot is ramping up (somewhere around page 200 probably knowing King ;) ) and you are immersed in the story, you flip the page and see a 2 page spread of printed google ads advertising a competitor's novel, how to "write your own novel", or even "how to avoid rabid dogs and killer clowns in ten easy lessons".

Immersion ruined, pacing killed.

[soniCron]

I guess what I'm saying is, we trust developers not to put giant penises in the next Halo, ruining immersiveness. In-game advertising doesn't immediately equate to ruining the experience. True, it's first-generation technology, so there's going to be a lot of awkwardness to it, from both parties. But in-game advertising doesn't inherently mean a ruined game. Take it on a case-by-case basis. Just as a developer can ruin a game with giant penises, they too can ruin it with poorly targeted advertising. Let's wait and see how this plays out...

[puggy]

i think it really depends on the context of the ad.
For example, i really hate those adverts that are shown at the game openeing. However in the game, say your walking down a street, you could have a billboard, like you would any normal street which could have advertising on it. It's not obtrusive, it provides some extra income and it can provide extra realisism to the game.

If you were to include advert space, you would really need to work out the best places to put it.

This is well done in the james bond movies, They get money from companies like BMW, to use there cars. Those products are integrated into the story line and work well without being obtrusive.

[Indiepath]

What's the take on post-production in-game advertising? By this I mean having your game assets replaced at load-time with assets that contain sponsor media.

[cliffski]

This is well done in the james bond movies, They get money from companies like BMW, to use there cars. Those products are integrated into the story line and work well without being obtrusive.


I disagree. The advertising is horribly, obviously, tragically obtrusive. I've heard that 'I Robot' is even worse. Its another reason not to pay money to go see such films at the cinema.
There is a whole slice of people who rebel badly against advertising, thats why firefox's adblock plugin is so hugely popular. The thing is, is it worth annoying so many of your potential customers for the few dollars an indie game would earn in ads?
I speak as someone who made a game (kudos) thats ripe for advert exploitation. Buying a can of coke could reduce your stress and increase your attractiveness :D

[Philippe]

This is well done in the james bond movies, They get money from companies like BMW, to use there cars. Those products are integrated into the story line and work well without being obtrusive.

They used to do this well, but these days I'd rather cite bond movies as an argument for the opposite - shots when he receives his car in recent films do look a lot like car advertisement and, at least to me, it's a total immersion-breaker.
It's a slippery slope...

[UnknownGuy]

Depending on the game, sometimes ads can even add the the realism.

(I mean mainly 3d games, because in real life advertisting is EVERYWHERE.)

But of course, you must judge on a case by case basis.

[Davaris]

I heard an interview with an executive from an online music download service (don't ask me which one it was as it was 6 months ago) and he said they had given up on trying to charge money for thier music. Now you can get their music free if you watch an add first. Perhaps this is the way EA intend to go with some of their titles?

I certainly wouldn't pay for a game that had annoying adds in it, however I do think adds are a good idea while the product is free. We could fill our games up with annoying advertising and if the user pays for the game then we could make the adds go away. That way we'd be able to make some money out of the demo leachers. :D Also if you could somehow integrate your game data with the add information flow, it might stop hackers from making patches to stop the adds.

[MrQ]

I raised a similar topic a few weeks back: http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=8658

I still think its a viable option for casual games, if the game is suited (and designed) to utlizing advertising. I would not attempt to intergrate ads into a puzzle game or a game which bluntley throws ads at you unless it was a fit of some sort. I have talked to Massive and a few ingame advertisers about the casual market and it seems most of the big ones are looking at the 'Core' Teen+ market rather than casual market. Eyeblaster and doublefusion come to mind for casual games but unfortuantly both have failed to answer my mail or request to evaluate thier SDK.

This is what James G had to say from popcap:

Portal sites would likely not allow your game if you do your own deal with advertisers, but I expect you will shortly see more and more portal sites publishing interfaces for developers to implement in their games which allow the games to hook up to and display ads that the portal provides -- in return, of course, for a revenue share to the developer from the ads.

most portals right now are testing models, but i expect within the year this will be a fairly standard part of the business model.

James Gwertzman
Director of Business Development
PopCap Games

[Bad Sector]

F.E.A.R. (a great game, btw) had computers with the Alienware logo (http://img461.imageshack.us/img461/1407/alienware15lq.jpg) in their desktop. This is in-game ad and i think that it's one of those "well used" ads.

I mean, it wasn't anything unnatural, like troops wearing Alienware T-shirts or stuff like that. It's just that instead of using some random name (or no name at all) for the computers in the game, they got the money and used Alienware (now, some may question what do these game-oriented machines have to do with research, but well anyway...).

However, having said that, when i first saw the "Alienware" logo there i was a bit of shocked because i just didn't expected to see something from the "real life" in the game. Not that i disliked that or anything, but it seemed a little funny :-). But it worked! When a friend asked about getting a new powerful gaming computer a couple of months ago, the first thing that came to my mind was Alienware :-).

[Indiepath]

What's the take on post-production in-game advertising? By this I mean having your game assets replaced at load-time with assets that contain sponsor media.

This comment, I think, is quite valid. Maybe you don't think the tech is available?

[Polycount Productions]

Didn't read the whole thread, but wanted to point some resources you might find interesting:

www.eb-ingames.com
www.igaworldwide.com

[Stridge]

Hi,

I think we got to face the fact that in game advertisement is here… as well as in movies. Not the one before the featured attraction but in the movies.

Picture, James bond riding a fabulous xyz brand of car. Who haven’t seen a can of coke in a shoot them up or billboard in race games? Speaking of race games, how the brand of cars to put in a blockbuster game are chosen, accordingly to the 3d models we have on hands? Don’t think so…:rolleyes:

There’s multi level of in game advertisement, from skinning a game to incorporation of commercial product in the game play.

I wonder which is more efficient.:confused:

[puggy]

Didn't read the whole thread, but wanted to point some resources you might find interesting:

www.eb-ingames.com
www.igaworldwide.com

eb-ingames show's exactly what not to do with there demo. finnish a level, show a 30 sec ad is not the way to go, unless you give the game away for free

[gec]

I have made games with advertising built into the game and I think it had almost no impact on the quality of the game. For example, a certain drink company wanted a placement, so when we had soda vending machines in a level, it was their drink machine.

Users will shun obtrusive or annoying ads. But I think indie developers should welcome ads in games. Users want to pay less to play and advertisers want to find all the people that are leaving television.

[toastytoad]

Hey, I'm a bit new to this board, but I'm old hand in the business. I believe strongly in in-game advertising. So much so that my company is dedicated along those lines.

If anyone needs advice or technical assistance, please do let me know. We can talk here, or msg me for e-mail contact.

Later

-TT

[Anthony Flack]

I think there are situations where games benifit from "real world" products, like the drink vending machines in Shenmue, for example. It makes sense to try to do some kind of deal in these instances, when it fits with what you were trying to do anyway. But what doesn't work is the Red Bull ads in a PS1 Wipeout game I have, where it suggests I go and buy a Red Bull while it loads each level. That really did ruin the game for me - it actually made me feel quite surprisingly angry - and I've never played it again. We have come to accept obtrusive adverts on TV, radio and magazines. But we wouldn't accept them in books or CDs, and we shouldn't accept them on DVDs that we buy either. And I think games are much like this. In the end, you shouldn't do anything that will diminish the quality of your product, if selling a product is what your business is built on.

But it is interesting how, in the online world, adware has come to fill the void left by there not being any viable way of handing micro-payments. They can't collect your 10 cents, so they get you to watch an ad instead.

It's not about making people happy. It's about making more money with something that many people are already going to buy
I disagree. I do think it's about making people happy, and about generating enough money to keep being able to do so. But primarily about the happy.

[MrQ]

I loved wipeout and I didn't mind the redbull ads at all. It was probably the first ads I had seen in a game and I thought it was pretty funny. Redbull sponsor alot of motobike and other racing teams so if you have ever watched motor racing you would have seen redbull advertised around the track anyway.