Analyst says in-game advertising is good business - US$ 2 billion by 2011 |
In-game advertisements are not really new to gamers. Game developers can basically plaster a Coca-Cola logo on a zombie's chest and players wouldn't mind. (Though that doesn't make them less annoying.) Anyway, analyst Paul Verna from eMarketer sees a bright future for in-game advertising.
Developing games is not cheap at all, especially when the technology improves every other day in leaps and bounds. The solution for some developers is offering advertising spots to other companies that they will insert in-game. In a report called "Video Game Advertising: Getting to the Next Level", Verna says that in-game advertisements would help marketers (it's a whole new platform), fresh opportunities for tech companies, and a good source of revenue for game developers.
Verna gives the figures: "over the next five years video game advertising will grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 23%, reaching nearly $2 billion by 2011." The growth will be caused by the widening demographics of gamers - young and old, men and women, casual and hardcore. Online console titles and MMOs are the best sites for in-game ads as they have the bulk of the gamer population and they will be a great factor in the growth as well.
Currently, the cost of making "advergames" have reached US$ 164 million and is expected to reach US$ 344 million in 2011. Revenues from the in-game advertisements are estimated to reach a whopping US$ 969 million (in 2011) in the US alone. And those are very good numbers from a marketing point of view.
There's no turning back now.
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I don't mind ads in games, as long as they're done properly. Afterall, there have been ads in movies and TV shows for years, and most people don't notice them. You see a scene in a TV show where a family is sitting down eating a meal and one of the characters picks up a Coke can - Coke probably paid for that, but it's not an in-you-face ad. I wouldn't mind seeing ads in racing games, or ads along the boards in a hockey game, but don't stick a big McDonald's ad on the side of a space ship. Ads in games can bring a sense of realism to the game if done properly.
Gord
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Plus, in many games it detracts from realism, rather than adding to it--McDonald's in Doom? On Mars, of all places? That's just stupid, obtuse and in this case in particular, when it's out of place and the game developers clearly have enough money, it just makes them look like a sellout. The other two adds exemplified don't bother me too much.
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but it's bad because it breaks the immersion into the game, just imagine GTA with real ads instead of "getalife" and "I slept with your mom", the game would be a LOT less funny!
So for me, it's all bad...
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Er, no, sorry, that's rubbish.
Now I'm a race sim fan. Racing is plastered with logos. THAT I accept because it's part of the experience. However, you start plastering ads in my games, and I'll stop buying them.
I already pay $50 for cable TV, and of the 40 or so channels I get, all but two have commercials. So I'm getting screwed there already. When I go and pay $60 for a game, if there is advertising in it, it'll be the last game I buy from your company, end of story. This is non-negotiable. This is just a money gouge... "Hmm... We're already gouging consumers on game pricing..." (If they weren't, then how come, a few months after release, games drop by at least $20? You telling me they're not making a profit then?) "But we're not quite rich enough. Gentleman, suggestions?" "Well we could put advertising in our games and make even more money." "Jones you're a genius. Gentleman... *raises glass* To evil..."
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the big airwaves blimp, and the way a cutscene starts zoomed RIGHT in on a pack on a wall then pans across to a helicopter..
I've never laughed so much as when I saw those.
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