I was too busy keeping one eye on the road ahead, one on my rear view mirror, and one on the passing scenery & attention to detail. Yes, all three of my eyes were excited by this title.

I use Gillette razor products anyway, but seeing their name plastered across a van I was passing whilst playing a video game wouldn’t make me think “Oh, I must put Gillette on my shopping list… they make realistic vans… I bet their shavers are the best a man can get”. Even if I did use another brand, the fact that Brut makes aftershave that was designed to ‘splash it all over’ doesn’t mean that a splash of advertising makes me want to buy their shower gel product.

I think that there are some very valid points above, certainly regarding ‘in-your-face’ mandatory screens advertising products that you cannot skip, something on the screen to read in order to disguise a lengthy loading procedure, or down to branding in-game objects with Coca-Cola colours in December. Ho Ho Ho.

Video cassette, DVD, and Blu-ray titles have trailers for other movies before the main feature. They are only annoying when you cannot skip them.

Not having to constantly read the same text regarding powering-down your console whilst the hard disc icon is displayed would be a benefit, though.

There were UPS delivery vans in “Midtown Madness” that I played for years on my PC system, but I still use the Royal Mail (as long as the items get signed for).

Sony’s last Virtual Press Office Release did not go into enough detail about where the advertising will be displayed, but they are simply moving with the times & finding alternate revenue streams. If this results in cheaper end-products for the consumer, then this should be applauded. However, if it means that games stop working when links to external marketing servers are broken, then the same consumers are well within their rights to return the product as ‘not fit for purpose’. Sony will probably use the disclaimer that “content may change during online play” to get around this though.

If you have seen the movie “Minority Report” you’ll know how targeted advertising can be a good (or a bad) thing depending on your point of view.

If in-game advertisements were based on the answers to the questionnaire presented during the sign-up to the PlayStation Network, then this is one approach, but slapping details about ranges of cosmetics, for example, or going down the track of showing me details of holidays on the Orient Express, neither of which I have any interest in, would get more than a little tiring after a while if such commercials could not be skipped or do not have an “opt-out” facility.

Branding in-game objects is probably a very good stream of revenue as corporate marketing departments will then begin to bid for inclusion in high-profile titles. It may also mean that more Add-on packs start to be available as downloadable content. If you don’t like the colour-scheme of Snake’s stealth suit in the latest “Metal Gear Solid” title, then don’t worry as Microsoft will probably have an Xbox-branded version you can download for free. We may even see Blu-ray cases with text such as “This title brought to you by…”, or manuals “printed on trees grown in forests exclusively owned by…”. Neither of which should be a worry as long as the price of the game was then half the usual Recommended Retail Price.

From the content available on the PlayStation Store on a weekly-basis, I would seem to be in a minority reporting […oh, never mind…] that I do not wish to constantly change the default theme of my console, but how long will it be before the theme concept is taken to the next stage & you have the equivalent of a virtual desktop with information streamed behind the XrossMediaBar (well, once the RSS Feeds are implemented properly… let’s not get ahead of ourselves too much… the UK will probably have the “DUALSHOCK 3” controllers, “WipEout HD”, and wireless “SingStar” microphones before then).

Integration with the “Qore” magazine may then take-over my console to a point where I cannot actually play an online game because I cannot get any network bandwidth due to excessive background loading of other assets. Still, anything that stops my PS3 console’s Blu-ray drive being used during “Grand Theft Auto IV” & reporting error code “80010514” just after it meets an untimely death (with, or without Niko Bellic’s help) will prolong the life of my console to show me even more products I don’t need.

How long before the XMB icons will be constantly changing advertisements?

How long before my hard drive will be full of clutter from my console’s activity online without my knowledge?

And how long before Sony will be able to see what products I spend time watching in-game, and can then sell my registered e-mail address to other organisations who offer similar products?

Remember Microsoft? They have an operating system called “Windows” that can do the same thing.

Just wait for Nintendo to catch-up and we can all go back to gaming again.

BFN,

fp.

It’s unreasonable so suggest we should get games for free because of it, it just helps keep costs down given the massive increase in development costs in recent years. People shouldn’t be saying “Why should I pay £40 for a game with ads”, they should be saying “I’m glad these ads are helping games stay at last gen prices”. You get ads in magazines, on subscription-TV, at the cinema and on the bus, but none of these things are free…

I don’t think Sony or game developers would ever allow an “out of context” ad in their game. I’m all for ads that fit with the environment, if anything it adds to the realism of the game.

I believe MS signed a similar deal months ago and no one was bothered with that. If developers can get an extra revenue stream from MS that they can’t get from Sony it would give extra reason to develop 360 exclusives for one thing. This just levels the playing field.

As far as I can tell the ONLY thing this changes is that places where you saw an ad before will still have an ad, only instead of being hard-coded on the disc, they will be downloaded from the net and will change occasionally.

The software will be used firstly on EA Sports titles and Burnout Paradise and will probably be followed later by Home (which is a perfect advertising platform). Sports stadiums have billboards, it’s part of the stadium, so what’s wrong with virtual stadiums having the same thing?

Who here has played Burnout? Were you appalled when you saw a Gillette truck? Did you gasp at the sight of a Burger King billboard? Would your gaming experience be ruined if the rest of the billboards had other real companies on them, or the Gillette van became a CocaCola van next month?

Look at Race Driver Grid too, that is covered in ads, even the cars are sponsored! But this is what happens in real races so why not in game? Would it bother a manufacturer suddenly changed sponsors?

The last time I noticed advertising in a game was Burnout Paradise, and it stuck out a lot because they were the only adverts in the game, and there were far too many gillette vans around. If its subtle, people wont notice it.

Don’t you realise that most PS3 magazines already carry adverts for sex chatlines/text messaging services/escorts etc.
Tell me exactly how they relate to PS3 and gaming please (and don’t say it’s relevent because gamers are lonely w*nkers).
This will intrude on gaming as adverts are not made to be ignored and do influence people, that is why it is a multi billion pound industry. Perhaps they have gotten to you too without you realising it, in which case job done.

According to (the UK gaming magazine) “PlayStation 3 Magazine” in December 2007 it was “Out Now”.

This next-generation, well, almost last-generation now, title (albeit just a tarted-up 1080p version of the tracks available in “Wipeout Pure” & “Wipeout Pulse”) is pretty quick at 60 frames per second.
Blink & you’ll missed it!

—

On the subject of in-game advertising, the PlayStation Network title “Pain” is already advertising other titles (e.g. “Buzz!”) on billboards during gameplay.

Does anybody have a problem with that?

Also, if it is just ‘SCEA’ & ‘SCEE’ who are “announcing the introduction of dynamic in-game advertising”, and this bothers you, just buy your games from the Asian region instead.

BFN,

fp.

just a small point i know.

also, ad’s have been around in game for decades.

but ‘dynamic’ imagine using a first person shooter, and then getting an advert pop-in on an in-game tv/monitor or something advertising that gun on special offer at walmart.

And the big companies who run the programming studios still know that if they were to put too many adverts or anything in games then people just wouldnt buy the game, simple as.

And I have no idea what you are on about saying “Do you realise that adverts of an adult nature will now be seen by children and under-age teens?” The age content will still be enforced on adverts so only ones appropriate to the game will be allowed.