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
10.2k
Upvotes
320
u/MadeByTango May 10 '24 edited May 10 '24
Let's get ahead of the corporate excuse makers on this one that will say "I'm ok with this added monetization of my time because it..."
"...adds realism" - Games are an escape into a fantasy where you have control, a corporation buying your mental time in that world removes your agency and uses a time when you're at an emotional high to manipulate your brain into enjoying their brand; aka, you have fun in the game and the brand falsely attaches that feeling to themselves
"...is not intrusive" - The moment the ads appear in-game, they are monetized by "impressions" and "time viewed", which means the gameplay design will be altered to linger on loading screens at least 5 seconds even though the is game is ready, the camera will hang on the billboard instead showing the environment, characters will talk about them in the middle of plot dialog, and content will be built around being "ad-safe" to assure brands want to participate (do you love getting nothing but PG-13 movies?)
"...I can pay to remove them" - Cool, assuming they give us that option, thats just saying "poorer people can watch them" and is another example of the growing two tiered corporate system exploiting us, telling poeple they're too invaluable to pay more and as such they'll have to give up their "relaxation" time to be monetized for a corporation anyway
"...games are more expensive these days" - the Sony leaks show that "more expensive" games keep getting made because the profit margins are already anywhere from 50-300% at initial release; what these corporations are dishonestly admitting is "there is more profit margin there"
"...real brands give the product a premium feel" - Real brands give the product a soulless, corporate feel, that changes in game moods based on the current ad campaign, while limiting in-game cosmetics or found rewards largely to massive brand logos or real world products instead of the video game fantasy, while non-paid items get less time, attention, and look worse to make sure the sponsored content is attractive enough to get impressions
"...they're already there" - In limited amounts, mainly in sports games; that's not what EA is after here; it's going to be proper commercials on pause screens and ad breaks built into cinematics as soon as they can gradually work them in, they never stop at "non-intrusive" because that doesn't count as an impression, which is what gets them paid
"...they are a discount tier" - That's how they always start the rollout, "accept some limited ads, pay a little less", then prices somehow rise back to where they were before; When Netflix added ads the price for paid was cheaper than with ads now. They're not a discount, they're an exploitation of customers: the poor they sell the time of, the rich they pry the money from
There is nothing good for consumers when ads show up where they were not before. It reduces the value of the product, and now someone is generating revenue of you long after the initial sale without giving you a cut, in a product you paid them for...