TV-Style ads coming to console gaming before the end of 2021

[GhostRoadieBL]

Summary

A new platform known as "playerWON" is launching TV-style ads inside console games, directly targeting younger audiences who have avoided these ads in other media sources. Reporting shows around a dozen games will receive updates to implement in game ads by Q2/Q3 2021

Quote

"In-game ads are also generally cheaper than branded content and other means of advertising."

--Edit: these are games mentioned in the article not necessarily games with advertising coming in 2021--

 

Games listed include:

Hi Rez Studios - Smite

Electronic Arts - Battlefield and Madden NFL serieses

 

free-to-play market titles:

Call of Duty: Warzone

Roblox

 

Simulmedia's (owner of PlayerWON) testing shows 22% of people are more likely to play a game and 11% more likely to spend money within that game if they were shown in-game ads which provide "perks" or "other in game incentives"

Quote

"Data also found that people were willing to watch up to 10 ads a day in exchange for these in-game rewards."

 

Quote

"it appears console games could be getting some different, more traditional kinds of ads in the future. An advertising platform known as “playerWON” will launch this week with the intent to bring ads to run TV-style ads inside of console games as a way to target younger demographics and those who don’t see ads in other places"

 

My thoughts

 This is an unfortunate byproduct of the militant march of advertising companies to completely encompass every aspect of every person's lives, pigeon holing the populous into niche markets and destroying open opinion and artistic integrity of beautiful works. I don't think for a second that this move came from the game designers, artists, programmers, cinematographers, composers or anyone else who cares greatly for the work they are producing. This move came from a group of "bottom line first" studio execs who have no interest in games, their culture or their player's experience. The same scum who made micro-transactions, loot boxes, gatcha games, and "season passes" for experience breaking maps in multiplayer games.

 

This is pathetic and desperately needs to be regulated and corrected. In my personal opinion, this is the same as CocaCola putting a polar bear and bottle cap logo on a Rembrandt.

 

No one really wants government oversight on their hobbies, this is one I would gladly welcome a 90% tax on every ad placed in a game, bleed this company's revenue until it goes bankrupt and then ban advertising on works of art.

People thinking this isn't going to become "normal" needs to look at the toxic state of mobile games to see how bad this idea actually is. Everyone thought "it's just a mobile game, it's free, I don't mind an ad or two" and now you can't get a game without video ads or banners blocking the game screen and burning through your data.

 

 

Sources

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/in-game-ads-coming-to-console-games/

https://www.vg247.com/2021/07/01/tv-ads-console-games-playerwon/

[Forbidden Wafer]

Can someone please ban ads, especially within paid services/products?

[elfensky]

anyone have a full* list of games I have to avoid?

 

 

[Spotty]

I guess not enough people are watching free to air TV these days. I blame all those reality dating and cooking shows. If they actually made TV that was worth watching people would watch it and the ads, but it's all just junk like farmer wants first dates in my kitchen with a MasterChef's big brother who's got talent renovating the block. It's basically impossible to find anything decent to watch on free to air TV. 

 

33 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

"Data also found that people were willing to watch up to 10 ads a day in exchange for these in-game rewards."

"Woah, that weapon looks cool! How did you unlock it?"

"I watched ads for an hour"

 

I miss the era of gaming where game items were unlocked by playing the game.

[rodion.zissou]

I don't even understand how ads are so (apparently) lucrative or worthwhile for companies. obv I'm not in marketing. But TBH when I see ads for products/services invading my personal space I actively avoid said product. I'm not sure what my subconscious thinks about it, but I am a true ad hater.

[poochyena]

37 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

advertising companies

Seems odd to blame advertising companies. They aren't forcing their way in, the game companies are letting them in.

 

40 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

No one really wants government oversight on their hobbies, this is one I would gladly welcome a 90% tax on every ad placed in a game, bleed this company's revenue until it goes bankrupt and then ban advertising on works of art.

I prefer our capitalist society, ty. if you don't like it, don't buy it and use the service. Trying to control how other people enjoy their life is morally wrong to me.

[poochyena]

5 minutes ago, rodion.zissou said:

I don't even understand how ads are so (apparently) lucrative or worthwhile for companies.

Ads introduce products to people. Without ads, small companies would struggle as large companies would be able to just pay their way onto the shelves of large chain stores, leaving the small online retailers to go unnoticed.

[GhostRoadieBL]

2 minutes ago, rodion.zissou said:

I don't even understand how ads are so (apparently) lucrative or worthwhile for companies. obv I'm not in marketing. But TBH when I see ads for products/services invading my personal space I actively avoid said product. I'm not sure what my subconscious thinks about it, but I am a true ad hater.

it seems to be a combination of misinformation and very biased "studies" If you read Simulmedia's website, it makes it seem like ads almost triple the subscriptions to a website or massively increase the user interaction with a service. That is the opposite of the rhetoric which seems to exist online so I don't really know how this whole thing works, there must be a massive, silent majority of sludge brains saying "oooh click ad get skin, durrr click ad get more RAM" which is very possible based on the trillions of dollars ad companies make each year.

[Spotty]

44 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

ban advertising on works of art.

Do you really think Smite and Madden NFL 21 are works of art?

[GhostRoadieBL]

16 minutes ago, poochyena said:

Seems odd to blame advertising companies. They aren't forcing their way in, the game companies are letting them in.

 

Trying to control how other people enjoy their life is morally wrong to me.

I went into who's decision this was, also ad companies hunt for media to show ads on, not the other way around. Maybe if it was a small indie company but EA isn't one to hunt for other companies to take $ from something they can advertise on themselves. This was a "we're going to pay you X million dollars to include our ads" not "could you guys advertise in our madden games?"

 

 

trying to control how people enjoy their life is exactly what these companies are doing, directing the viewer to specific products, services, even news feeds are manipulated through advertising groups to keep the "right" ads based on the reader's response to a specific article or web search.

 

you must be trolling to honestly think capitalism has been working for the world. It's dysfunctional and a farce in the mask of "free market", small companies are forced to advertise through snake oil salespeople like Simulmedia who make monstrous fees and more often than not don't ever produce the results they claim. This is the truth of capitalism in the modern era.

[ouroesa]

22 minutes ago, elfensky said:

anyone have a list of games I have to avoid?

 

 

Did you even read the article?

[GhostRoadieBL]

7 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Do you really think Smite and Madden NFL 21 are works of art?

pretty sure their character artists, composers and directors probably think so.

[FeIIex]

I hope this doesn't become a trend..

[elfensky]

10 minutes ago, ouroesa said:

Did you even read the article?

no, just the title /s

also

Quote

Games listed include:

Hi Rez Studios - Smite

Electronic Arts - Battlefield and Madden NFL serieses

 

free-to-play market titles:

Call of Duty: Warzone

Roblox

"include", so this is not the full list?

[ouroesa]

15 minutes ago, poochyena said:

Seems odd to blame advertising companies. They aren't forcing their way in, the game companies are letting them in.

 

I prefer our capitalist society, ty. if you don't like it, don't buy it and use the service. Trying to control how other people enjoy their life is morally wrong to me.

Advertising companies are to blame. They encroach every corner of our lives and are the root of our personal information being gathered everywhere you go. Gaming companies should not have let them in but that's like saying your body is 'letting in' germs though a gaping wound and blaming the body. 
I hate ads and advertising - chock full of liars (as in the sense of purposely misleading others by present data that has so many clarifications that it turns into a what I feel is a lie due to being deliberately misleading).

[Spotty]

Just now, GhostRoadieBL said:

pretty sure their character artists, composers and directors probably think so.

Then the argument would be made that traditional TV ads, and the ads that would appear in the games which you believe should be banned, are equally art as you hire actors, script writers, animators, special effects artists, costume designers, directors, music composers, music performers... 

[2DPrinter]

Hold up, are these in games ads for consoles like Xbox and PS5? Or off brand consoles?? 

[Middcore]

15 years ago or so there was a controversy where people worried games would start integrating ads into the game world itself based on your search history and stuff. Is this worse? I can't tell if this is worse. 

 

 

1 minute ago, 2DPrinter said:

Hold up, are these in games ads for consoles like Xbox and PS5? Or off brand consoles?? 

What "off brand consoles" do you think EA makes games for?

[GhostRoadieBL]

6 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Then the argument would be made that traditional TV ads, and the ads that would appear in the games which you believe should be banned, are equally art as you hire actors, script writers, animators, special effects artists, costume designers, directors, music composers, music performers... 

absolutely, I'm going to sound old but back when TV was new the news had no ads at all, no sponsorships, no paid content. 23hours per day ads could be running on entertainment but even that was minimal and not created by psychologists to manipulate. They were demonstrations, product showcases, and service notices from local or national companies. Now ads are designed solely to manipulate the vulnerable.

 

Consider the difference between a YouTube sponsorship vs a pre-roll ad on LMG, one shows off a product and it's features, the latter is typically an earworm or seizure inducing "buy it now!!!" at 2x the volume to ensure you are struck by the ad.

How manipulative would it be to be playing an FPS after you team loses an ad pops up saying "2x damage on your next match if you follow this link"? preying on vulnerability is morally wrong, and normally has protections preventing it.

[GhostRoadieBL]

18 minutes ago, elfensky said:

"include", so this is not the full list?

this is what was listed in the articles and Simulmedia's website hasn't posted which companies or titles they will be partnering with.

[poochyena]

31 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

also ad companies hunt for media to show ads on, not the other way around.

no, it is actually the other way around much of the time. Any website that uses google adsense is an example of that. Companies go to google to request ads be shown on their site for money.

34 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

This was a "we're going to pay you X million dollars to include our ads" not "could you guys advertise in our madden games?"

How do you know who approached who?

36 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

trying to control how people enjoy their life is exactly what these companies are doing, directing the viewer

"directing" is not "controlling". If you can make a choice to see the ads, then they aren't controlling you. If you force them to disable the ads, you are controlling what people can and can't see and enjoy.

38 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

small companies are forced to advertise through snake oil salespeople like Simulmedia who make monstrous fees and more often than not don't ever produce the results they claim.

I run a small company and never even heard of "Simulmedia" and i've spent hundreds of dollars advertising my business

28 minutes ago, ouroesa said:

They encroach every corner of our lives

Because non-advertising companies pay them money to.

29 minutes ago, ouroesa said:

are the root of our personal information being gathered everywhere you go.

gathering personal information is important for a business regardless of advertising. For example, because of youtube analytics, LTT knows to bulk purchase more medium and large size shirts than small shirts since they can see most of their audience is male, and thus will need bigger t-shirts.

33 minutes ago, ouroesa said:

Gaming companies should not have let them in

Thankfully, we live in a capitalist society so you have the freedom to make the choice to not buy from companies that have morals or products you do not like.

[CerealExperimentsLain]

1 hour ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

This is an unfortunate byproduct of the militant march of advertising companies to completely encompass every aspect of every person's lives, pigeon holing the populous into niche markets and destroying open opinion and artistic integrity of beautiful works. I don't think for a second that this move came from the game designers, artists, programmers, cinematographers, composers or anyone else who cares greatly for the work they are producing. This move came from a group of "bottom line first" studio execs who have no interest in games, their culture or their player's experience. The same scum who made micro-transactions, loot boxes, gatcha games, and "season passes" for experience breaking maps in multiplayer games.

Maybe the gamers, as consumers, should use the only weapon at their disposal, their wallets, and refrain from buying into such games with these features, so that it becomes unprofitable?

 

...Ha ha ha ha!!!  Sorry, I couldn't keep a straight face anymore... Gamers, not consume? Impossible!

[Spotty]

7 minutes ago, GhostRoadieBL said:

How manipulative would it be to be playing an FPS after you team loses an ad pops up saying "2x damage on your next match if you follow this link"? preying on vulnerability is morally wrong, and normally has protections preventing it.

I assumed it would be more traditional advertising like what you typically see on TV, such as movie/video game trailers or ads for Coca Cola or Ford. Imagine losing a game and then an ad for UberEats plays saying "You might have missed out on that chicken dinner but UberEats delivers KFC, order a 30pc bucket now and get a free 600ml bottle of Pepsi. UberEats will deliver to your door so you can stay in the fight".

... Maybe we shouldn't be giving them ideas

 

However I do strongly agree that there should be protections in place. Any game that has built in advertising such as what is being proposed here should be rated for Mature audiences to prevent companies advertising directly to kids. The ads should follow the same or stricter guidelines as if they were being shown on prime time TV. No ads for tobacco products, alcohol, or gambling.

[ARikozuM]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

I miss the era of gaming where game items were unlocked by playing the game.

Damn it, old man, stop talking about the 90's and 2000's!

[GhostRoadieBL]

6 minutes ago, poochyena said:

no, it is actually the other way around much of the time. Any website that uses google adsense is an example of that. Companies go to google to request ads be shown on their site for money.

"directing" is not "controlling". If you can make a choice to see the ads, then they aren't controlling you. If you force them to disable the ads, you are controlling what people can and can't see and enjoy.

I run a small company and never even heard of "Simulmedia" and i've spent hundreds of dollars advertising my business

gathering personal information is important for a business regardless of advertising. For example, because of youtube analytics, LTT knows to bulk purchase more medium and large size shirts than small shirts since they can see most of their audience is male, and thus will need bigger t-shirts.

Thankfully, we live in a capitalist society so you have the freedom to make the choice to not buy from companies that have morals or products you do not like.

these answers prove you are part of the problem with capitalism, the argument "consumers have the freedom to make the choice not to buy from blah blah blah" is predicated on the consumer being INFORMED of their other options. Consumers don't have the freedom to choose which ads they see, or even the size of the companies they are forced to see in the ads.
you pay hundreds of dollars advertising your company, how many of your ads compared to the number of ads from Disney+ appear on Google searches? is it a "free" market when small businesses who are paying for ads get 0.0000001% of the ads?

 

How do I know who approached whom? because when a company crosses the billion dollar mark, they don't go looking for the little guys unless they are buying the company. Meanwhile ad companies hunt for ways to get their customer's ads infront of as many eyes (and now as many vulnerable eyes) as possible. EA doesn't go looking for advertisers, just like Lotus parked their car outside a James Bond movie producer lunch.