Sony says yes to in-game PS3 adverts
Groan
The virtual world used to be one of the few places where we weren’t continually blasted with adverts, but no longer. Sony has announced plans to introduce "dynamic" in-game advertising on the PS3.
Come to Al's Axes, for all your Axe needs! Chop-chop!
Very soon you could be firing off rounds at aliens from far away worlds, when an advert for “Bob’s Gun Store, Route 409” pops up. Alternatively, you could be burning virtual rubber and drive past signs for everything from beer to breadsticks, pizzas to petrol - with the latest gas price, presumably.
Any company that wants to put their advert within a game will have to speak with Sony’s…ahem… “in-game advertisement distribution partners”, the first of which is IGA Worldwide. IGA’s targeting the ads, unsurprisingly, at 16- to 35-year-olds.
In-game advertising is expected to be worth around $971m (£498m/€630m) by 2011, according to market watcher the Yankee Group, Sony chirped. Good for Sony - but not for gamers, we'd suggest...
COMMENTS
For irony's sake and angered fanboys.....
Anyone want to chip in for a "Buy a 360" advert to go on GT4?
re: re: Paid Xbox Live, "free" PSN...
But those adverts are there regardless of whether or not you're on Xbox Live. Plus they are only adverts for other games and peripherals, not household adverts.
So yeah, bring on the paid for Live over PS3 any day.
Quick!
Fight over whether the PS3 ingame adverts will be better/higher-res/longer/smarter than the XBox ingame adverts!
Fine by me (sort of)
As long as:
* ads are designed into the game in a realistic way.
* ads are chosen to fit the game, rather than randomly.
* the game doesn't spaz out if the ads are unavailable.
* the profits go into the games, either by lowering the price or by paying for good add on content.
* ads are vetted by the console vendor to make sure they don't cheapen the system.
re: Paid Xbox Live, "free" PSN...
LOL, Xbox is a paid for, and still is plastered with advertisments. Every blade is chock full of them. Also there is already games with advertisments ingame, infact Microsoft lead this way with this cashcow (suprise suprise) WAY back in 2006...
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2006/0906-eaandmassivedynamicads.htm
So even with this announcement, PS3 is still the cheaper, less advert ridden platform.
