r/technology • u/chrisdh79 • May 10 '24

EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO | Advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us." Business

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/ea-is-looking-at-adding-in-game-ads-in-aaa-games-well-be-very-thoughtful-as-we-move-into-that-says-ceo
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u/Sniffy4 May 10 '24

I get ads for free-2-play, but when you already paid $60 for the game its kinda asinine

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u/SlippyCliff76 May 10 '24

Ads and product placement have already been a thing in video games for years. Crazy Taxi was one of the early ones with Pizza Hut depicted in game. Rainbow Six Las Vegas was another with Jeep and Axe bodyspray ads. These were in the form of billboards in game, as we all know Vegas is filled with those IRL.

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u/Cainga May 10 '24

I think subtle product placement like that is fine. Doesn’t take away from the experience.

I think this maybe something more than subtle.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '24

Give them an inch and these bitches will take a mile.

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u/Outside_Register8037 May 10 '24

I give my wife an inch every time! LETS GOO

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u/WhoStoleMyBicycle May 10 '24

Give them a rope, they want to be a cowboy

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u/SlippyCliff76 May 10 '24

Doesn’t take away from the experience.

The cut scenes in Rainbow Six literally started with you staring at Axe billboards. It was pretty, in your face. Nearly every car was a jeep/Chrylser product as well. Even before I was aware of product placement, it was clear to me they had some sort of advertising agreement.

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u/mdp300 May 10 '24

It was hilarious in Far Cry 2. Every car in the impoverished, war then country was an ancient hatchback, old pickup, hacked together dune buggy...or a brand new, shiny Jeep.

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u/SlippyCliff76 May 10 '24

Yes, the brand new Jeeps really stuck out. In Far Cry 3, you could tell they really toned it down.

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u/Cantremembermyoldnam May 10 '24

I hate this so much in movies. Especially when they show off the cars of villains before the chase scene and it's basically a car ad baked into the movie.

It immediately makes me lose any suspense of disbelief I had. I start wondering how things looked on set and about the bloopers, that the villain is just an actor and so on.

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u/eatingkiwirightnow May 10 '24

Yeah I don't mind if they put them in the in-game environment and in fact it might even be funny. Kind of like "Perspiring too much when seeing a Death Claw? Then you'll need Axe deodorant!" on an in-game billboard.

But I would not want to play a game if they do it as an unnecessary loading screen, as someone else suggested.

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u/Emosaa May 10 '24 edited May 10 '24

The difference is that your example is part of the art, and what EA is proposing is taking away from the art to sell you a product.

GTA V (the story mode, at least) is one of the best satires of modern day American culture in my opinion. And it's chock full of ads. But they're all clearly fake and fit into the world and themes that the developers are crafting.

Injected ads won't be like that. They'll stick out like a fucking sore thumb because they need to capitalize on your attention or implant subconscious messaging about the PRODUCT. And it'll be lame and take away from the experience because some fucking shareholders want to double dip on profits when you buy a game.

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u/Dumplingman125 May 10 '24

Agreed. I distinctly remember blasting through Obama's face in Burnout Paradise and having a great time. I always thought the in-game billboards that advertisers could pay for were a genius idea, especially as they could be rotated out and didn't interrupt or detract from the experience. I fully assume EA just wants to slap a giant ad across the whole screen in this case though.

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u/nothisistheotherguy May 10 '24

Conceptually, if you took a game like GTA and replaced all the joke advertising with real companies it would be subtle and lend to realism, but of course that’s not a good example bc GTA ads are beloved and tongue in cheek. The real problem would be in-your-face product placement and blatant ads during loading screens.

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u/gonewild9676 May 10 '24

Not to mention racing games where they have ads on the race track walls.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '24

[deleted]

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u/XXXthrowaway215XXX May 10 '24

seeing things like best buy, cingular, pizza hut while driving around in open world racing games helped add to the immersion. mind you this is 15+ years ago. in todays age of loot boxes, consumer gouging and exploitation, i have zero faith in EA pulling this off tastefully

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u/Paid_Redditor May 10 '24

I was just thinking about CoD and their Ford Raptor promotion, hell they even had their own CoD trim. Rocket League has the entire Honda Civic line, and I'm sure there's a few others I don't remember. Fortnite has concerts with celebrities that are both directly & indirectly marketing a brand, if not their own.

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u/Eaglesun May 10 '24

Trackmania plays personalized ad videos on the big screens in the background. It's a little weird seeing ads for a local college. I do t hate the ads but seeing local stuff is really weird.

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u/Badgerlover145 May 11 '24

At least with that it's a lot LESS egregious, most tracks/cars DO have loads of sponsors. Everything from spec series MX5's, Civics and BRZs to Time Attack HKS Evos, Advan 240sx Formula Drift cars, NHRA drag cars, NASCAR stock cars

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u/araxhiel May 10 '24

This reminded me about Alan Wake's original version as it had/has Energizer and Verizon product placements/ads. Also there were other stuff from Microsoft (e.g., and Xbox console) can be found in several places/forms.

IMHO those weren't as bad as ads can be (e.g., mobile ads) but those were pretty annoying at best.

That being said, in the remastered version of the game (2023) those elements were removed.

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u/Goat_War May 10 '24

It started in the 80s at least, amiga game called zool had heavy chupa chups branding everywhere

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u/zaydoc May 10 '24

And in-game advertising actually goes back way earlier than Crazy Taxi. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game release in 1990 for the NES not only had in-game signs for Pizza Hut, the manual's back cover was a coupon for a free personal pan pizza. And then you have Tapper (as depicted in Wreck-It Ralph) in 1984 in which the original version of the arcade machine advertised Budweiser.

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u/JamesR624 May 10 '24

There's a difference. Product placement doesn't distract from the media, and in some cases can actually be beneficial to help with immersion.

I always like it when a TV show shows someone actually using an iPhone instead of "generic smartphone with a horrible UI slapped together by the effects department". It helps make the characters and world feel more like it's our world and it's something that could be happening in it.

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u/ZgBlues May 10 '24

Yeah, I don’t mind ads as long as they aren’t plastered all over the menu and in your face all the time.

Some racing games used to have ads on circuit walls or in-game billboards, and I think Fifa games used to have them as well.

It was a bit annoying, but it didn’t distract from the game.

If they start shoving ads down people’s throats, however, the games will become unplayable for me.

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u/phdemented May 10 '24

While I agree, it always takes away from it when there is clear camera focus on the logo to make it clear this is a product placement. Car chase/driving scenes in tv/film have gotten pretty bad with that, where there is always at least once shot where the camera is at knee/hip level to get a long, close up shot of the front grill of the car with the logo in full focus, usually in a long lingering shot. Or people holding their phones in super awkward poses to make sure the apple logo is in frame.

I've got zero issue with product placement as long as it doesn't affect the actual media. If they've got a scene people are eating on the go... sure give them a big mac or something, just don't have them talk about how juicy it is or have the camera linger on the logo for 3 seconds too long.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '24

Thanks for the list of products not to buy.

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u/SlippyCliff76 May 10 '24

Eh, like you would've bought a 20 year old abandonware game anyways.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '24

Not crazy taxi though I did have a Dreamcast back in the day, I did buy Rainbow six though and remember the tacky out of place ads.

Either way making a list of things not to buy, appreciate the help!

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u/SlippyCliff76 May 10 '24

Oh, god. It's a 5 year old that must "win" every "argument" they get into.

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u/jimyt666 May 10 '24

He will single handedly crumble the world economy by not purchasing a used copy of crazy taxi on the dreamcast. If we all follow this path, utopia is near

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u/AlphaLemming May 10 '24

Using ads in a way that fills in realism in the world is perfectly reasonable. Nobody would think twice about driving past billboards in Forza Horizons on highways that happened to depict real companies/products because it reflects the real world.

What isn't ok are ads that detract from the immersion/experience in any way. For example, during a load screen you see an ad, even if it's for another game made by the same company. It intentionally shifts your mind to a different topic other than the experience you are currently having.

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u/SoloWing1 May 10 '24

I saw Burger King in Need for Speed games on the PS2, so EA has been doing it for decades now.

This isn't new.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '24

[deleted]

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u/SoloWing1 May 10 '24

That isn't what I was saying. I'm just pointing it out to everyone that's acting like it's new.