Product placement in games.

Hobbes

After the horrible i-pod advert called "Blade Trinity" I was annoyed that I had to pay to see what amounted to an advert (only I-Robot is second to it).

I see now adverts are now being pumped into games.

Anarchy Online is now free to play as long as you don't mind getting spammed by adverts in game (eg. Sprite).

Turns out the latest Splinter Cell also has adverts in it for chewing gum and AMD. I don't know how they justify the adverts though as the game is still the same bloody price.

Stephen

GT4 has loads of Vodafone and AMD billboards around the tracks. The US version of NFSU2 is basically one long advertisement for the Cingular mobile network - lame.

ObeyGiant

This isn't particularly new. Product placement has been with us from the start (tapper, cool spot etc.). Although it has ramped up a bit recently. Chronicles of Riddick was the first one that I remember thinking it looked a little out of place.

If you ask me (and you haven't), in-game adverts can help add a certain level of realism to a game, by bringing the game world slightly closer to the real world (like Splinter Cell or Crazy Taxi).

However, the Anarchy Online one is just wrong.

jill_valentine

If I recall correctly, the game that got harshed most severely for making this acceptable was Enter the Matrix, !in association with Powerade!. So many vending machines...

Metal Gear Solid 2 had quite a bit, but it sort of made sense that lots of soldiers on an oil rig might have lad's mags...

The Sims gave in, but kudos to them, they did it well. Avril Lavigne and Bloody Aguilera both make appearrances, and both are fiercely rude harpy people. Your Sims can get food from a McDonalds stall, but the description says something to the effect that the vendor has to live in his stall on the wage McDonalds gives him.

sound_wave

wasn't Red Bull advertised in the first WipEOut on the PS?

flogen

Yeah, just read up about the splinter cell adverts, they were harping on about realism etc, and while i haven't seen it implemented in the game yet I wonder how subtle it is and how realistic it actually is. How does the chewing gum work?

iregk

The whole brand name/product placement does make a game a little more real, providing its not been taken too far. GTA3 on the pc had a realgta patch that you could download and replace everything with real items i.e. the yakuza stinger became a toyota supra etc...

But recently and in particular EA games it is been taken to the extreme. The should just rename EA Games to Product Placement Games. Need For Speed 2 takes the cake, a burger king paint job for your car!!!!

jill_valentine

Didn't McDonalds actually release a platform game once? My old brain suggests it was on the Gamegear...

seamus

They've been doing this in movies for years. With games sales now demolishing box office takes, it was an obvious progression.

jill_valentine

jill_valentine wrote:

Didn't McDonalds actually release a platform game once? My old brain suggests it was on the Gamegear...

I was wrong, 'twas the Genesis.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/g/sega_genesis/mcdonalds_treasure_land_adventure/overview.php

BlitzKrieg

i wouldnt mind them in cyber or real world themed mmorpgs if it meant i wouldnt have to pay such huge sub fees, and as long as it isnt pop ups (billobard sprites would be best)


and in racing games etc i dont see the problem...unlike movies the appeal of games is interaction product placement in movies can ruin the experiance and in worse cases (like i robot and blade 3) get in the way of the storylines...while games product placement is great when you can smash said product with a basrball bat etc.

Hobbes

flogen wrote:

Yeah, just read up about the splinter cell adverts, they were harping on about realism etc, and while i haven't seen it implemented in the game yet I wonder how subtle it is and how realistic it actually is. How does the chewing gum work?

The first cut scene it zooms into a item in Sams hand. Its a pack of chewing gum (airwaves), he takes one and eats it.

Two cutscenes in you see a guard near a radio, it zooms into the radio and beside it is a packet of airwaves chewing gum.

Another cutscene in is an air blimp with an airwaves advert on it. I swear the cutscenes are just glorified chewing gum adverts.

Load screen has AMD on it, all computers either have AMD or nokia adverts on them.

iregk

I know this is a games forum but Minority Report really took the mic. That was the most product placement I have ever seen. But just look at Fifa 2005.... nuff said...

KdjaCL

Its new in that most of these ads will be updated when you go online, SC:CT also has nokia on board.


kdjac

Stormfox1020

The first two splinter cells were sponsored by Sony Ericsson, ie Sam's PDA was made by them. I wonder why they switched to nokia in the latest edition? Maybe Fisher wanted to play snake on his off days. Anyways More to the point, I agree that there a more and more ad's popping up in games and its ruining the games in my opinion. I want to play a game not be brained washed into buying certain phones or drinks etc. I also recall the Tony Hawks series had a few Nokia and Jeep sponsers in them.

Roar

didnt football games always have pitchside advertising?

besty

im playing tiger woods 2005 at the moment and all the big brand names feature heavily. i think its good though, just adds to the realism (as long as it is done subtly)

KdjaCL

Roar wrote:

didnt football games always have pitchside advertising?

Some sponsors come with the licence.


kdjac

Hobbes

Played the next level that required me to break into an apartment. Turns out mercs require multiple cans of Lynx (American version is called Axe) along with a crate of the stuff in thier bathroom. I guess the huge neon Axe sign overlooking his apartment probably made him buy the stuff.

Oh and some guards later in the game start pimping the new prince of persia game.

KdjaCL

Hobbes wrote:

Oh and some guards later in the game start pimping the new prince of persia game.

i took that as tongue in cheek and found it very funny, to me thats the kinda in game advertising i would like. Theres another game mentioned


kdjac

monkeyfudge

jill_valentine wrote:

Didn't McDonalds actually release a platform game once? My old brain suggests it was on the Gamegear...

There was a MacDonalds game on the Amiga as well. It wasn't toooo bad...

You didn't have to control Ronald McDonald. Instead you could control either of two kids called Mic and Mac... one white, one black... how very nice.. it was some sort of Captain Planet style enviromental game too... They carried little sort of sludge guns that they squirted on the enemies.

God. Actually... I vaguely recall playing a game on the Amiga where I was controlling the dog out of the HMV logo... that was very surreal...

jaggeh

and so on and so forth

Retr0gamer

Mick and Mack Global Gladiators was actually quite enjoyable. It played like the dave perry platformers of the era. However while you were playing it your mind was being filled with purified corporate evil.

monkeyfudge

Retr0gamer wrote:

Mick and Mack Global Gladiators was actually quite enjoyable. It played like the dave perry platformers of the era. However while you were playing it your mind was being filled with purified corporate evil.

Ronald McDonald didn't even put in an appearance, did he? I thought that was pretty classy.. ha

BloodBath

Nothing wrong with in game advertising as long as it's subtle or true to life like racing track billboards or football stadium advertising.


BloodBath

monument

Hobbes wrote:

Oh and some guards later in the game start pimping the new prince of persia game.

Lucas Arts did something like that for there 'Loom' game in the first Monkey Island.

Retr0gamer

Companies pimping their own games in another of their games is quite common. Examples are Final Fantasy VII which had a mention of Xenogears and Paper Mario 2 which has a character that pimps out intelligent system games (whivh everyone should buy anyway ).

Nietzschean

Hobbes wrote:

After the horrible i-pod advert called "Blade Trinity" I was annoyed that I had to pay to see what amounted to an advert (only I-Robot is second to it).

I have to agree, the first time she took it out was ok, little stupid to listen to loud music while ye fight but.... then the second and 3rd times they were making conversations about an ipod ffs.

Its one thing for realism, its another when ye morph storylines to give more screen time to the product.

Stormfox1020

Also anyone else ever see a film called evolution an Alien/comedy film? Instead of hinting the product though out the film, at the end they just did a mini ad for head and shoulders while the creds rolled. It was actually quite amusing.... and uncalled for?

Nietzschean

it was probally intended to be funny.... i must say i thought that film was just woefull, that H&S thing was probally the funniest thing in it...

simu

jill_valentine wrote:

The Sims gave in, but kudos to them, they did it well. Avril Lavigne and Bloody Aguilera both make appearrances, and both are fiercely rude harpy people. Your Sims can get food from a McDonalds stall, but the description says something to the effect that the vendor has to live in his stall on the wage McDonalds gives him.

The Sims is a parody of consumerism, according to some interview i read somewhere. That sounds a bit spoofy but when you think of the joking descritions they give all the objects in the game, it's true! It becomes clearer in the Sims 2 where Sims who have money as their aspiration can be very materialistc but Sims who aspire to family, knowledge and love less so. You are forced to admit there is more to life than buying - Sims need more than that to have fulfilling lives.

Also, it's funny how a person can satisfy their "want" urges by downloading virtual and thus free objects for their Sims! (Although some people actually pay for downloadable objects - sad imo).

Hobbes

KdjaC wrote:

i took that as tongue in cheek and found it very funny, to me thats the kinda in game advertising i would like. Theres another game mentioned


kdjac

I thought so too until you notice in your game case there is an advert for Prince of Persia

TerrorFirmer

little stupid to listen to loud music

Yeah that was ridiculous, I mean how was she supposed to have a sharp reaction time in battle without being able to hear anything?

I cringed so much when I saw that - not only did it come across as painfully out of place - it also made a farce of the fight scene. pretty much a deaf human versus super agile vampires. I think she'd need all the help she could get....without listening to deafening music.

Imagine the terminator, kyle fighting the t850 while listening to the latest tunes :rolleyes:

steviec

I don't think it's that big an issue, depending on the game. In a game like Gran Turismo I'd be disappointed if the real circuits weren't saturated with Vodafone logos... On the other hand I don't need to see a picture of Tiger Woods every 5 seconds while racing in Burnout 3. But at worst it's only a slight annoyance and at best it really adds to the realism of a game. So I don't have a major problem in general.

Does anyone remember Cool Spot on the Megadrive? That was pretty surreal product placement, playing as the spot from the 7up logo!

Explosive_Cornflake

What I think will be a problem for all this in film/game advertising, is what will the ads look like in 10 years when we are playing/watching the games. An ad for something new, thats ten years old, will look stupid i think. It makes everything a lot less time less.

Smellyirishman

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/04/11/news_6121928.html

There y'all go, bit of an article for ya :-D

dearg_doom

Smellyirishman wrote:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/04/11/news_6121928.html

There y'all go, bit of an article for ya :-D

Jesus that's the wrongest thing I've ever seen!!

I hate seeing ads in games, especially how EA ruined Burnout3, which I was really looking forward to with huge LYNX ads !!

I mean seriously, did you buy more LYNX or Tiger woods games, simply because you saw them at every corner in a game?? No, niether did I, but I vowed never to buy LYNX again as a result.


The worst game-o-ad I can remember was the SNES game based on the 'Motorcycle Mice from Mars(or something:)) briought to you by Snickers!!

And G-Police(a good game) had a lot of hype because the cops and badguys were kitted out in Diesel gear!!


Still though, games == good.

Adverts == bad.

monument

dearg_doom wrote:

Jesus that's the wrongest thing I've ever seen!!

Well, that's just the worst thing I've seen in some time!

i_am_dogboy

I don't think there's a problem with ads in games as long as it doesn't get in the way of the game. It could even add to the realism in some cases, such as posters on the walls of a subway station or something.

But if the ads are in the games I can't help but think they will indeed get in the way.

MrPinK

jill_valentine wrote:

I was wrong, 'twas the Genesis.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/g/sega_genesis/mcdonalds_treasure_land_adventure/overview.php

In that case they released more than one game, cause I remember one for the Amiga that looked nothing like that.

DonkeyStyle \o/

monument wrote:

Well, that's just the worst thing I've seen in some time!

I feel sick. (although it may have been those expired sausages I had about an hour ago)

I play games so I don't have to watch TV and all the shíte adds.
I can see this getting out of hand... to the point where you have people asking "hey where can I get a no-adds crack for GameXYZ?!".
If I pay full whack for a game, they have no right to pimp crappy 3rd party products to me... I don't owe them that, or anything like it.

They've been given "the inch" already with various games and nobody seems to care... now it looks like they're going to take the mile aswell :rolleyes:

Stephen wrote:

The US version of NFSU2 is basically one long advertisement for the Cingular mobile network - lame.

I did notice that whole "Cingular" branding crap in NFSU2 alright (it may have been the US demo I got from fileplanet) but I wasn't 100% sure if it was a real company... sweet jumping jesus though, now that you mention it, that's horrific. :eek:
I mean, the in-game Burger King outlets were bad enough... but this puts EA even further into the depths of soulless corporate wh0re territory.
/me adds EA to his boycott list alongside airwaves and coke.

The really sad part is, this in-game advertising rubbish will probably work for them, at least in parts of brain-dead consumer america where people don't mind having products rammed down their throats.... sitting there watching a half-hour show with a half-hour of adds chopped into it. :rolleyes:

jill_valentine

I'd have no problem at all with product placement in games...


...if the games got cheaper.

How likely is that? Not very. Not as long as folks are happy to pay sixty quid for a special edition ("Now with awkward tin box!") Why would they? Would you knock the price, if you could extort money so easily?

DonkeyStyle \o/

jill_valentine wrote:

Why would they? Would you knock the price, if you could extort money so easily?

Exactly, they'll just keep pushing this further and further.
The only way it'll stop is if people refuse to buy games that are essentially interactive advertisements.
There needs to be a central shít-list of add-ware games so people know what to avoid.

koneko

Activision advertise their games in their other games. I mean, in Vampire Masquerade: Bloodlines (published by Activision), there are Call of Duty pinball machines.

IIRC though the soda-cans were "C0ck" and not "Coke". Nice touch.

dearg_doom

Ah yeah, joke ads are great.

Those fake ads in the GTA games are some of the funniest games jokes I've seen/heard!

jill_valentine

Ah yes, the other side of the coin. Joke ads are wonderful... The Exploder ad campaign in Vice City is hysterical...

"They've got your wife!"
"But I'm not married!!!"
"You are now! To AMERICA!"

... as is Sprunk in San Andreas...

Fysh

The thing that concerns me is how advertising in games will affect game development. Previously it was a case of the game company making sure the game would sell. Now, as we see happening with TV as well, games companies will use the excuse of rising development costs (granted, it's an issue - but on the other hand, not every FPS needs to have a coded-from-scratch ultra spanky physics engine, damnit!) will resort to advertising to generate extra revenue (ie profits, since there's bound to be shareholders involved and more money is always nice, so price cuts will most likely not happen, at least not across the board). End result is that advertisers will likely veto "controversial" games, so anything innovative or daring will have a harder time getting that kind of support. Net result? As with commercial television, the end users get more and more crap, and less and less innovation. Which, in my experience at least, means fewer fun games and more mind-numbing EA sports sims type games.

Yay for advertising in games. *sigh*

DonkeyStyle \o/

Really good points Fysh, I can see it now... hot-shot executive trying to please the investors with games that have a 'proven track record' and hence re-hashing the same shíte over and over (the sims anyone?)... stuffy PR/marketing types having creative input into games going "ooh no no no, we don't want our product associated with such behaviour, change it to this instead."
With any luck, they'll shoot themselves in the foot, and discerning gamers will avoid the end product... although I don't have a lot of faith in that happening judging by the popularity of a lot of the tripe passing for games these days.

I agree that the radio adds in GTA were fantastic, but I wouldn't really call them adds ... it's some very well written comedy advertising non-existant companies.

Aren't there laws on this side of the planet against product placement though?
I remember seeing a TV info spot from someone like the British advertising/television standards agency or someone like that where they waffled on about protecting people from product placement, accompanied by a skit clip of an aussie soap where one of the characters puts a soft-drink can infront of the camera so it fills the screen... just to get their point across. Does anyone remember this?
It makes me wonder why NFSU2 didn't do the whole "Cellular" thing on the UK release... initially I thought it was because that company didn't operate over here, but now I'm wondering are we protected legally somehow? There again it didn't stop them putting BurgerKing outlets everywhere.

simu

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

hot-shot executive trying to please the investors with games that have a 'proven track record' and hence re-hashing the same shíte over and over (the sims anyone?)...

Um, no. The Sims was a totally new type of game when it came out and the Sims 2 is a worthy sequel with far more possibilities than the original game. As for the add-on packs, you didn't have to buy them as it's possible to download a whole load of free objects and hacks for the game and they actually provided good add-ons at a reasonable price. How about a million different soccer games, anyone?

BlitzKrieg

we don't want our product associated with such behaviour, change it to this instead."

this already exists with most racing games...car companies will not allow their cars be submitted to in game damage if they feel it will reflect badly on the vehicle itself...

DonkeyStyle \o/

simu wrote:

Um, no. The Sims was a totally new type of game when it came out

Well I really loved the original Sims, as you say it was a nice original title, but they really milked the shít out of the whole thing with those expansions... wow a new selection of carpets and more stupid-looking costumes! only €35?! How can I lose?! Reasonably priced my hole tbh.
Maybe I'm just more fudged-off hearing about the sims - takin' a poop than you are.

How about a million different soccer games, anyone?

Urgh, who makes those Championship Manager games btw?
As far as I can see it's the same game with a new database of players/stats every year... and you pay full whack every time.

BlitzKrieg wrote:

this already exists with most racing games...car companies will not allow their cars be submitted to in game damage if they feel it will reflect badly on the vehicle itself...

Well that explains a lot, I'd assumed it was lazy/stupid developers who couldn't be arsed putting in the man-hours to implement it.
Funny, now that I think of it, I was playing Mercedes-Benz World Racing last year (where every car you can drive is a merc) and remember they were talking about the cars stats, and even with the slider set all the way from 'arcade' to 'realism', there was still a 10 or 20% increase in traction over each cars real-world handling... I had thought it was purely a gameplay thing, but I wonder now were they just protecting their image.