Gearbox President on “Game Ads Done Right” |
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BY Rain Anderson March 29th, 2008 |
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Randy Pitchford, President of Gearbox software is clearly sick of being attacked over the company’s announcement of incorporating in-game advertisements into future products. He has good reason to be, if the company follows what he has outlined in his blog. He admits that players have right to be angry at the companies that exploit ads which negatively effect gameplay (ahem. EA). However he does something really cool, and actually proves to players that ads can be incorporated in games and keep with the gameplay and style. In this case, the image above is a screen shot of their upcoming game Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. Yeah, the Philips logo is there and fits the scenery well, “What is so cool about that?”, one might ask. Well, it’s actually historicially accurate, and no I’m not lying (unless of course Pitchford is).
The man then goes on to note a few cases of great advertising,
- Toy Story: The movie was better and more authentic because Mr. Potato Head was one of the toys, not in spite of it. The Pixar guys rule and do a great job, we respect them a lot! We respect their decision to use a few real toys in Toy Story – we don’t hate them for it!
- Cast Away: Tom Hanks’ character worked for FedEx. That was much more authentic than if he worked for some fictional over-night air delivery service.
- Super Monkey Ball: The bananas have the Dole sticker! I thought that was cool and funny, not cheap or sucky. It felt natural and was a nice detail that added character. It did not feel like an advertisement that was exploiting me.
And you know what? He’s right. I definitely think that having Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story really added something to the film. I was apprehensive at first about in-game advertisements taking hold, but if developers can utilize opportunities like this and learn when ads simply do not apply then I can actually see them becoming viable. What about you? Hate ads no matter how they are implemented or not even bothered by them? Let us know what you think!
[See also: Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway gallery]
March 30th, 2008
at 5:40 am
I agree with this article 100% done right its just fine, guitar hero 3 not done right. although I really do like axe body wash, and so do the girls!
March 30th, 2008
at 1:21 pm
Yeah, developers have to be careful how subtle the advertising is. I understand the cost of developing games may be going up, but if they charge you for the game, subscription, microtransactions then have the cheek to put obvious advertisements in the game there will very likely be a backlash. I am personally quite interested to see how the EA advertisement supported games turn out, it means that to maximise revenue the the games will have to be massively replayable,
rather than winging it a bit like how some movies do, you pay to see the movie only to be dissapointed but they don’t care because they got the money.
But yeah, not being in your face is really key unless you give obvious benefit to the player *like the game for free*.
It will be cool if it goes down the free route as I think it will get more players as it is less of an investment for them.
March 30th, 2008
at 3:09 pm
I’ll tell you what game ads done wrong is. Counter-Strike 1.6, it’s really just disgusting how theres a large Orange Box ad in a desert enviroment currently being bombed by terrorists, with no indication of civilization, let alone people who would understand what the hell a “Orange Box” is. It’s really just stupid.
March 30th, 2008
at 3:15 pm
I didn’t know that CS 1.6 had in-game ads, or maybe I just don’t remember them being there. As far as marketing goes, it’s great because you’ve already got an audience interested in the product you’re trying to sell. But you’re definitely right it certainly doesn’t fit in with the gameplay at all. I also think they could have sold just as many units of Orange box without the distasteful ads.
March 30th, 2008
at 11:01 pm
It may have been someones tag…that really liked the orange box.
March 31st, 2008
at 2:10 am
I did a google search and it looks like there are / were some ads at least at some point (http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/03/cs_ads_hit.jpg). Does anyone know if they are still there?