Advertisements And Product Placement In Full Priced games

[DoubleGulpSlurpeeCup]

Andrew Willson the CEO of EA, announced a few months ago during a Q4 earnings call Q&A that the company is looking into putting in-game ads in full priced, AAA games. Here are the direct quotes from the NASDAQ transcription.

Question:
Eric Sheridan - "Thanks so much for taking the questions. Maybe two-parter, if I can, to Andrew. From a big-picture standpoint, if you take a step back, I'd love to get your take on two themes we continue to hear about across the gaming landscape. One, the market opportunity for more dynamic ad insertion across more traditional AAA games across different formats and how you think that might be revenue opportunity over the medium to long term."

Answer:
Andrew Wilson - "To answer your question on advertising broadly, again, I think it's still early on that front. And we have looked over the course of our history to be very, very thoughtful about advertising in the context of our play experiences. But again, as we think about the many, many billions of hours spent, both playing, creating, watching, and connecting, and where much of that engagement happens beyond the bounds of a traditional game experience. Our expectation is that advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us. We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that, but we have teams internally in the company right now looking at how do we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences, but more importantly, as we start to build community and harness the power of community beyond the bounds of our games, how do we think about advertising as a growth driver in those types of experiences."


I do not see something like this as a good thing. I get it is something that is easily ignored but that is NOT the point. It is one thing if you are playing a sports game, Nascar, FIFA, NBA2k. But it is a whole different beast when you are subject to Monster Energy drink product placement in a game like Death Stranding, Schnider Trucking company ads in American Trucking simulator, Verizon and Energizer in Alan Wake, and the most egregious one I can think of the fucking CUP NOODLE QUEST IN FINAL FANTACY 15!

It ain't gettin any better folks... get ready for MORE launcher screen ads for other games or in game currency, Un skippable ads in artificial loading screens, real life advertisements covering in game textures, and a Premium+ Platinum Deluxe membership requirement to remove them.

 

[OmegaPunch's iconOmegaPunch]

Thank Allah I stopped playing new games all those years ago.
Best decision of my entire life.

 

[DoubleGulpSlurpeeCup]

Thank Allah I stopped playing new games all those years ago.
Best decision of my entire life.

I'm getting on that train with you pretty soon.

 

[dropsmegamega]

 

[OmegaPunch's iconOmegaPunch]

View attachment 35860

I completely forgot this actually exists.

 

[MasterEn]

Andrew Willson the CEO of EA, announced a few months ago during a Q4 earnings call Q&A that the company is looking into putting in-game ads in full priced, AAA games. Here are the direct quotes from the NASDAQ transcription.

Question:
Eric Sheridan - "Thanks so much for taking the questions. Maybe two-parter, if I can, to Andrew. From a big-picture standpoint, if you take a step back, I'd love to get your take on two themes we continue to hear about across the gaming landscape. One, the market opportunity for more dynamic ad insertion across more traditional AAA games across different formats and how you think that might be revenue opportunity over the medium to long term."

Answer:
Andrew Wilson - "To answer your question on advertising broadly, again, I think it's still early on that front. And we have looked over the course of our history to be very, very thoughtful about advertising in the context of our play experiences. But again, as we think about the many, many billions of hours spent, both playing, creating, watching, and connecting, and where much of that engagement happens beyond the bounds of a traditional game experience. Our expectation is that advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us. We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that, but we have teams internally in the company right now looking at how do we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences, but more importantly, as we start to build community and harness the power of community beyond the bounds of our games, how do we think about advertising as a growth driver in those types of experiences."


I do not see something like this as a good thing. I get it is something that is easily ignored but that is NOT the point. It is one thing if you are playing a sports game, Nascar, FIFA, NBA2k. But it is a whole different beast when you are subject to Monster Energy drink product placement in a game like Death Stranding, Schnider Trucking company ads in American Trucking simulator, Verizon and Energizer in Alan Wake, and the most egregious one I can think of the fucking CUP NOODLE QUEST IN FINAL FANTACY 15!

It ain't gettin any better folks... get ready for MORE launcher screen ads for other games or in game currency, Un skippable ads in artificial loading screens, real life advertisements covering in game textures, and a Premium+ Platinum Deluxe membership requirement to remove them.

if it makes you feel a little better, this will cause problems later down the line.
pikmin 2 had real life products as the treasures that you can collect, and for the switch ports, they had to replace everything that wasn't a nintendo product.
i can only image this happening and the products in question not existing anymore or change names or something like that. it also could back fire spectacularly and people just refund the game or just stop buying their games all together.
most people don't care for ads. even something as simple as a small ad banner or just a small square ad off to the side of youtube legitimately pisses some people off to no end. if enough people complain and don't buy the garbage, it might change their minds.
i doubt it, but it's possible.
they could also do like mario kart 64 and make parodies of the brands. they weren't very intrusive though and were only in one course, the first one; luigi's curcit. but i doubt that they are smart enough to think of doing that even if they combine all of their heads together.

 

[Varyag]

Ads in games back in the OS2 era made sense. Billboards on an urban environment made them feel real, like NFSU2/GTA or the movie posters in Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

Modern advertisements standards are nowhere near the same, and you can be damn sure they'd make you watch a 30s youtube ad after a loading screen before letting you go back to gameplay.

 

[OmegaPunch's iconOmegaPunch]

if it makes you feel a little better, this will cause problems later down the line.
pikmin 2 had real life products as the treasures that you can collect, and for the switch ports, they had to replace everything that wasn't a nintendo product.
i can only image this happening and the products in question not existing anymore or change names or something like that. it also could back fire spectacularly and people just refund the game or just stop buying their games all together.
most people don't care for ads. even something as simple as a small ad banner or just a small square ad off to the side of youtube legitimately pisses some people off to no end. if enough people complain and don't buy the garbage, it might change their minds.
i doubt it, but it's possible.
they could also do like mario kart 64 and make parodies of the brands. they weren't very intrusive though and were only in one course, the first one; luigi's curcit. but i doubt that they are smart enough to think of doing that even if they combine all of their heads together.

People always forget that if they worked together, they can make anything happen.
Including forcing these CEOs to change their minds about this decision.

 

[MasterEn]

People always forget that if they worked together, they can make anything happen.
Including forcing these CEOs to change their minds about this decision.

hopefully that happens.

 

[OmegaPunch's iconOmegaPunch]

hopefully that happens.

We can only hope.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Andrew Willson the CEO of EA, announced a few months ago during a Q4 earnings call Q&A that the company is looking into putting in-game ads in full priced, AAA games. Here are the direct quotes from the NASDAQ transcription.

Question:
Eric Sheridan - "Thanks so much for taking the questions. Maybe two-parter, if I can, to Andrew. From a big-picture standpoint, if you take a step back, I'd love to get your take on two themes we continue to hear about across the gaming landscape. One, the market opportunity for more dynamic ad insertion across more traditional AAA games across different formats and how you think that might be revenue opportunity over the medium to long term."

Answer:
Andrew Wilson - "To answer your question on advertising broadly, again, I think it's still early on that front. And we have looked over the course of our history to be very, very thoughtful about advertising in the context of our play experiences. But again, as we think about the many, many billions of hours spent, both playing, creating, watching, and connecting, and where much of that engagement happens beyond the bounds of a traditional game experience. Our expectation is that advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us. We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that, but we have teams internally in the company right now looking at how do we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences, but more importantly, as we start to build community and harness the power of community beyond the bounds of our games, how do we think about advertising as a growth driver in those types of experiences."


I do not see something like this as a good thing. I get it is something that is easily ignored but that is NOT the point. It is one thing if you are playing a sports game, Nascar, FIFA, NBA2k. But it is a whole different beast when you are subject to Monster Energy drink product placement in a game like Death Stranding, Schnider Trucking company ads in American Trucking simulator, Verizon and Energizer in Alan Wake, and the most egregious one I can think of the fucking CUP NOODLE QUEST IN FINAL FANTACY 15!

It ain't gettin any better folks... get ready for MORE launcher screen ads for other games or in game currency, Un skippable ads in artificial loading screens, real life advertisements covering in game textures, and a Premium+ Platinum Deluxe membership requirement to remove them.

Basically my opinion is that any game that is set in the actual real world (not a fantastical world that looks like our world) can have product placement (within reason of course). If they have it looking like the average clickbait news site with a bunch of ads, then gamers should reject it outright. And if they start attaching dynamic ads to games like if it was a website, gamers better boycott that trash.

and the most egregious one I can think of the fucking CUP NOODLE QUEST IN FINAL FANTACY 15!

OMG this so much!!! I was losing my mind over so many people defending this travesty in the Final Fantasy thread. Our hobby is so cooked if that is the attitude that people have towards games. Just disposable products to be discarded and not valuable pieces of art and purveyors of culture. If you buy this trash, you have no right to complain about video games being treated as jokes.

 

[MasterEn]

Basically my opinion is that any game that is set in the actual real world (not a fantastical world that looks like our world) can have product placement (within reason of course). If they have it looking like the average clickbait news site with a bunch of ads, then gamers should reject it outright. And if they start attaching dynamic ads to games like if it was a website, gamers better boycott that trash.



OMG this so much!!! I was losing my mind over so many people defending this travesty in the Final Fantasy thread. Our hobby is so cooked if that is the attitude that people have towards games. Just disposable products to be discarded and not valuable pieces of art and purveyors of culture.

if it makes you feel better, i think the cup noodle thing was stupid too.
if it was just a regular healing item, it would have been a neat little reference. but not a full on side quest like it was. that's something you would see in a disgaea game, not final fantasy.

 

[Havacross]

View attachment 35860

if i remember correctly if you go take a piss in that same room theres an ad for a real AMC show too lmao

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

if it makes you feel better, i think the cup noodle thing was stupid too.
if it was just a regular healing item, it would have been a neat little reference. but not a full on side quest like it was. that's something you would see in a disgaea game, not final fantasy.

Its ok, I've accepted I'm an old man yelling at the clouds on most things, swimming against the currents of rampant capitalism. That's why I come here, to release my frustrations in writing.

 

[LiberoVulpes]

Product placement has been quite common, i still remember the Coca Cola machines in Parasite Eve 2.

As for actual ads within games, i know Valve has prohibited doing so on Steam, and has removed games for that.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Product placement has been quite common, i still remember the Coca Cola machines in Parasite Eve 2.

Has it? Of the top of your head, name 10 non-sports games with product placement. I thought we all agreed that product placement in games (unless it is very subtle) is immersion destroying.

 

[Clippy]

Product placement is fine by me. Video games have been doing it for decades now and if anything, it actually enhances the experience. It's pretty cool to see a billboard with a company logo you know. I remember feeling the same way about licensed music way back when. There was this excitement about games having 'real' music you could recognize from elsewhere.

Anyone trying to peddle ads in video games deserves to be fucked in their eye socket with a cactus since they probably like taking one up their ass on a regular basis. It would be bad enough if the games were free but we all know that this is about having us pay $100 for the privilege of getting beaten over our heads with cancer. Also, I still don't understand how intrusive ads manage to sell anything. If you get in the way of my entertainment you're immediately on my blacklist. Do other people not react this way to ads? Am I alone in this?

 

[J.F.C]

Has it? Of the top of your head, name 10 non-sports games with product placement. I thought we all agreed that product placement in games (unless it is very subtle) is immersion destroying.

Yakuza 1
Yakuza 2
Yakuza 3
Yakuza 4
Yakuza Dead Souls
Yakuza 5
Yakuza 0
Yakuza 6
Judgement
Yakuza 7
Lost Judgment
Like a Dragon: Gaiden
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Like a Dragon: Pirate in Hawaii

 

[cjl8336]

I remember people saying this was the beginning of the end for video game advertising...

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Yakuza 1
Yakuza 2
Yakuza 3
Yakuza 4
Yakuza Dead Souls
Yakuza 5
Yakuza 0
Yakuza 6
Judgement
Yakuza 7
Lost Judgment
Like a Dragon: Gaiden
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
Like a Dragon: Pirate in Hawaii

Ewwww, ok. Well, thanks for letting me know. Yakuza goes on my do not play list.

 

[LiberoVulpes]

Has it? Of the top of your head, name 10 non-sports games with product placement.

Alan Wake, uses energizer batteries.
Parasite Eve 2, Coca Cola machines.
Gran Turismo.
Need for Speed.
Pikmin 2, some collectibles.
Chibi Robo, some collectibles.
The Sims franchise, has some IKEA stuff.
Death Stranding, has monster energy drinks.
Yakuza has a bunch, mostly regional or japan only stuff.
FF15, funny cup noodle.

 

[J.F.C]

Ewwww, ok. Well, thanks for letting me know. Yakuza goes on my do not play list.

It's so subtle you won't even notice it 90% of the time, i'm not sure why you have such a problem with subtle product placement, it's not like any of the products in Yakuza are present in the main story and most of the time they are just ads or consumable items that help the world feel more alive and realistic, it helps a lot with immersion since most Yakuza games take place in the real world.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

Alan Wake, uses energizer batteries.
Parasite Eve 2, Coca Cola machines.
Gran Turismo.
Need for Speed.
Pikmin 2, some collectibles.
Chibi Robo, some collectibles.
The Sims franchise, has some IKEA stuff.
Death Stranding, has monster energy drinks.
Yakuza has a bunch, mostly regional or japan only stuff.
FF15, funny cup noodle.

It really depends on how subtle it is and if the game is set on modern day earth whether it makes sense.

Like Gran Turismo cannot exist without product placement. It is product placement for the car industry the game.

But Pikmin and FF15 having real life stuff is unfettered greed. Absolutely disgusting and no rational human should support it.

Post automatically merged: Mar 3, 2025

It's so subtle you won't even notice it 80% of the time, i'm not sure why you have such a problem with subtle product placement, it's not like any of the products in Yakuza are present in the main story and most of the time they are just ads or consumable items that help the world feel more alive and realistic (especially in something as realistic as Yakuza)

To be honest I'm not that familiar with Yakuza. If you say it is done with subtlety, I'll take your word for it.

Like for example, The World Ends With You is a JRPG set in modern Japan and they made up their own clothing brands based on modern Japanese brands. There was no need for product placement to achieve that feel of modern Japan.

 

[J.F.C]

It really depends on how subtle it is and if the game is set on modern day earth whether it makes sense.

Like Gran Turismo cannot exist without product placement. It is product placement for the car industry the game.

But Pikmin and FF15 having real life stuff is unfettered greed. Absolutely disgusting and no rational human should support it.

Post automatically merged: Mar 3, 2025

To be honest I'm not that familiar with Yakuza. If you say it is done with subtlety, I'll take your word for it.

Like for example, The World Ends With You is a JRPG set in modern Japan and they made up their own clothing brands based on modern Japanese brands. There was no need for product placement to achieve that feel of modern Japan.

Yeah it's done tastefully most of the time, the only egregious product placement in a Yakuza game was the NVIDIA building in Yakuza 5, and even then you have to be on the lookout to even see it since it's in an area the player can't access.

 

[LiberoVulpes]

I remember Akiba's Trip 2 had a few that were really obnoxious, there was an entrie area i avoided, cause it had the same trailer for a game (Trails of Cold Steel) playing on repeat and it really got old.