In-Game Advertising/Product Placement in Games

[Timekeeper]

It's probably a little too blatant, but I have these two games for my Mega Drive

[KentaRawr!]

In 3rd birthday, SE put an ad for itself in level 4. In rachet and clank games there are jak ads and visa versa

icwutudidthar

[Del Murder]

I have no problem with product placement in games or TV. Whatever lets them make their money and they don't have to get it from me.

[NorthernChaosGod]

You'd be okay with commercials in games?

[VeloZer0]

I'd be ok if the extra revenue made games cheaper. I would still prefer paying more for the game, but I think it is a reasonable trade off.

[Carl the Llama]

I'd be ok if the extra revenue made games cheaper. I would still prefer paying more for the game, but I think it is a reasonable trade off.

I seriously doubt that this would ever happen, can you say that if you were a the owner of a games company that you would turn down extra cash, of course you wouldn't, I seriously doubt games would ever get cheaper because of some adverts.

[VeloZer0]

No, but as games get more expensive it could help off set development costs. In all honesty you are probably right about it not fitting in with the conventional off the shelf box model. But gaming is also adopting many other revenue models (digital transaction/subscription/freemium/ect..) and I don't think it is unreasonable that advertisements could play a role in some future model, as they do in TV already.

[Caelheim]

I'm firmly against product placement and advertisement in games simply because I believe that such things should not be forced upon us in every aspect of our often hectic lives. Whenever I play a game, I want to immerse myself in the setting for a few hours at a time...which is pretty much why I favour RPG's.

Then again, I have a rather dark view of society as a whole. To me, advertisement is nothing more than a subtle means of brainwashing the masses and ensuring their attention is drawn to purchasing or wanting particular things. It's also troubling just how much wealth and resources are wasted on creating advertisements each year.

[Giga Guess]

So long as it's done in an organic fashion, I have no issue. A real life restaurant, rather than having to cook up a lawyer-friendly name, or something on a billboard, where a billboard should be? Fine. Changing "Potions" to "Coca-Cola," I would object to.

[Mirage]

It has to be done in a way that fits with the setting of the game world, such as stores or advertisements that could actually exist in the area you're playing. Mt. Dew billboards in FF13-2? No thanks. Motorsport-related billboards in GT5? No problem, it even adds to the realism.

[Del Murder]

You'd be okay with commercials in games?

Not at all. I mentioned TV because I would prefer they use product placement instead of commercials.

[Polnareff]

TBH I am surprised games companies do not advertise their other titles in game, completely free advertising and in a format I think most gamers would not object to.

Capcom actually did this with several of their games. The Rival Schools series comes to mind first though.

[Del Murder]

So...you like Castlevania, don't you?

[KentaRawr!]

For that line to appear in MGS, you have to actually have a Castlevania save file on your system, so it's not exactly advertisement.