in-game ads EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games, again

[BiG StroOnZ]

Summary

EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed the company is considering putting ads in traditional AAA games, again, and the company expects the outcome to be different this time.

 

 

Quotes

Quote

In the Q&A part of EA’s latest earnings call, Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs asked Wilson about dynamic ad insertion in traditional AAA games. Wilson said, "…Advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us." He then continued, "…we have teams internally in the company right now looking at how we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences."

 

EA has had a few instances of poor in-game ads. In 2020, the company placed full-screen in-game ads for the TV show The Boys in UFC 4. Its player base poorly received this placement, especially as it disrupted the game. This backlash led to EA removing the ad soon after.

 

EA’s Need for Speed: Underground 2 from 2004 is famously known for its in-game ads placed on billboards all over the open world. Some would argue that EA did that for realism, as the brands in the game featured real-world companies like Best Buy, Burger King, and Cingular.

 

The company also signed deals with ad firms to bring in-game ads to Madden, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NHL, and NASCAR games. However, there were also immersion-breaking ads for Pepsi and Intel that appeared in Battlefield 2142.

 

Back in 2022, EA patented a system that generates in-game content and ads based on a person's playstyle.

 

My thoughts

This is not going to bode well with most modern gamers, I'm sure of it. Especially, after seeing many people recently being distraught over the fact that some end users within Windows 11 are having ad placement in various areas of the OS (even to the point where a tool was specifically created to remove them). I feel with certain applications of ad placement, there can be tasteful implementations of it. However, this is specifically when it is done for realism or authenticity. Like seeing real products for instance, being placed instead of generic named items, e.g., instead of a 'drink can' simply saying "Cola" on it, it says 'Pepsi' or 'Coca-Cola'. Sometimes, in movies for instance, they do product placement like this, and it doesn't automatically bother you as it adds realness to the surrounding environment. As mentioned in the article, in racing games, when seeing product placement on billboards: I do not think it's too problematic. What is concerning, as all the articles mention, is EA has had more bad ad placement instances or attempts than acceptable ones. Therefore, I'm not sure why they are willing to attempt it again in games that it might not be considered tasteful or "thoughtful". As mentioned in the sources, many of the articles detail other companies who did the same (in-game ad placement) that also were not successful or well-received. 

 

Sources

EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO | Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)

EA Considering In-Game Ads (Because It Went So Well Last Time) (kotaku.com.au)

EA wants to place ads in full-price games, again | TechSpot

[ARandomPerson]

Remind me the definition of insanity again. I forgot.

[joshfrog]

My thoughts Too.

 

I think games companies not just EA but Ubisoft and others keep trying to make more and more money from games and gamers yet keep spending more and more money on making crap games.

I think companies don't seem to understand the disconnect between them and the people they are trying to sell the product to all they see is if they put ads into games the same way movies and TV shows have ads they can sell the product placement or if they go they way of amazon, youtube and netflix with ads in the subscription services or pause menus they can start to make more money to cover the cost of the games they make.

 

The games companies don't seem to understand that just because you spent $200 million on making a game doesn't make it a good game, if anything it will probably mean its a crap game because you have had to find ways to recover as much of the development cost as you can and that means adding micro-transactions, skins, pay to win BS and any other way to sell shit in your game so adding ads for a lot of people is just another reason not to buy your crappy full priced video game especially when you now start to add "tasteful or thoughtful" ads to it.

 

I don't have a problem with racing games for example paying or being paid by car companies to make sure there are is in the game, as long as it isn't a quid pro quo like "you can use our cars just not X brands cars" or "you have to make our cars faster and better". 
To me that's a natural placement but if games companies start putting full game ads in games during game play for random AF brands I'm out.

Don't forget Ubisoft claims the ad for another Ubisoft game that popped up in game when a player hit the map button was a mistake, If EA saw that and though "oh boy that looks like a good idea that's do that" they clearly don't understand the role they play.

 

We already have ad blockers for web browsers, people make tools for removing ads from windows how long after games companies start putting ads in games will it be that someone makes an ad blocker for video games.

 

In no way do i support games companies putting BS ads in games if they think full screen ads will be ok for a game i paid for then i look forward to NEVER buying that game and if they make it worse by having unskipable ads in games i look forward to you spending 100s of millions making a game that i hope doesn't sell.

 

At what point does the large games companies wake up and see what they are doing to make more and more money from games is the reason there making less and less. 

[joshfrog]

8 minutes ago, ARandomPerson said:

Remind me the definition of insanity again. I forgot.

 

definition of insanity: EA and Ubisoft

[Poinkachu]

57 minutes ago, BiG StroOnZ said:

Like seeing real products for instance, being placed instead of generic named items, e.g., instead of a 'drink can' simply saying "Cola" on it, it says 'Pepsi' or 'Coca-Cola'. Sometimes, in movies for instance, they do product placement like this, and it doesn't automatically bother you as it adds realness to the surrounding environment.

 

The way SquareEnix did it :

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Product_placement

 

WARNING : Pic Galore

Spoiler

Coleman

https://www.coleman.com/

 

Nissin Cup Noodles

 

 

American Express

 

Vivianne Westwood's wedding dress

 

Or you know, the old old game from Square

 

[joshfrog]

Something i forgot to say, if EA puts ads in games i would hope that steam ads a tag like this saying the game has in-game ads so people can see before they buy the game that it has in-game ads

 

Edited May 11 by joshfrog
fixed a mistake

[TetraSky]

My interest in ever buying another EA title just keeps going down, somehow. Weird, huh.

[joshfrog]

I just had a really more scummy though, given how much permissions a game needs to be able to run on your computer, what would stop games pulling a discord and having an auto playing video or hidden link built into the game so when you launch or play a level of the game it starts playing or sending you to the link for the company paying to have the ad in the game. 

EA for example could charge per interaction and threw the game create an ad bot that boosts the interactions threw the game making it look like they are getting a crazy high number of conversions from the game but its just a hidden script running unknown to the player.

 

Now this could be a matter of well who cares it doesn't effect the player if it happens in the background without them knowing but given how bad youtube is with ads and the amount of scams that happen do you think EA or Ubisoft would care who pays them to have in-game ads, as long as the cheque clears but if all of a sudden your computer is being sent to random sites it could force you to download malware or who knows what else.

 

Ill admit this is very conspiracy thinking but is it really that far fetched given the level of scams that already happen from other sites that are full of ad scams. I wouldn't trust any company to care where the ads come from  and what it sends them to given how little youtube and google has given to care why would EA or any other game company.

[OhioYJ]

43 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

The way SquareEnix did it :

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Product_placement

I'm fine with "brand names" being in games. Those product placements don't necessarily bother me. It's when the games are connecting to an ad-server and trying to market to you, it's a problem in my opinion.

[thrasher_565]

just dont buy ea done.

[Poinkachu]

44 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

I'm fine with "brand names" being in games. Those product placements don't necessarily bother me. It's when the games are connecting to an ad-server and trying to market to you, it's a problem in my opinion.

Agreed.

Product placement if done right and with the right product can be discreet, and may even help with immersion.

 

I sure as heck don't want what I saw in Ready Player One

 

Done awfully :
My local TV show.
Imagine a sitcom, and then there's a scene where A goes to B's house, and B offers a drink.
B gives A a brand of a health drink, then A says it's tasty.
Then B goes off a 2 minutes sermon, praising & promoting the drink and brands whatever while A listens and be awed.

After that they continue the sitcom script.

 

And if you guesses that I never watch local TV anymore, the answer is Yes, you are correct.

[GOTSpectrum]

Honestly...

 

If it's done right, like in game billboards and posters... I don't think it will be too bad

 

BUT, if it's done badly... Well it would ruin a game for me ngl

[jmart604]

1 hour ago, GOTSpectrum said:

Honestly...

 

If it's done right, like in game billboards and posters... I don't think it will be too bad

 

BUT, if it's done badly... Well it would ruin a game for me ngl

I gave an opinion on this on Twitter but ads in game worlds that mirror where you'd expect ads in real-life might not be too bad.

 

Burnout Paradise did this really well - I remember driving by the "BETTER LATE THAN NEVER" billboards advertising Burger King and I really enjoyed that little touch that made Paradise City feel more like a real place.

 

I also enjoyed the AMD SFF PCs you saw in Deus Ex Mankind Divided. Discreet, easy to miss, and made you go "oh hey, lol" when you saw them instead of being annoyed.

 

What won't go over well is basically any kind of ad that feels pushed in your face instead of feeling like a world-building (for lack of a better word) easter egg. If people have to watch ads just to get to the next map or level, the backlash will be enormous.

 

And of course this is EA we're talking about so the chances they'll massively screw this up are not insignificant.

[GOTSpectrum]

5 minutes ago, jmart604 said:

And of course this is EA we're talking about so the chances they'll massively screw this up are not insignificant.

This is what fears me

[Salted Spinach]

Before the ads even get to you, they have to first sell everything they know about you to the ad networks to pick an ad for you that is most likely to result in sales

 

Lucky for me I play single player titles and can kill my internet after starting the game.

 

For those who play online tho, prepare to wireshark and block the ad sources

[Poinkachu]

27 minutes ago, Salted Spinach said:

Before the ads even get to you, they have to first sell everything they know about you to the ad networks to pick an ad for you that is most likely to result in sales

 

Lucky for me I play single player titles and can kill my internet after starting the game.

 

For those who play online tho, prepare to wireshark and block the ad sources

Let me introduce you to :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SimCity_(2013_video_game)

and

Always Online DRM

 

[Doobeedoo]

They can do whatever they want, spend a ton making games like other devs but in the end if their games are shitty it will hurt. Like some losing hundreds of mil making garbage.

[RejZoR]

Remember Need for Speed Most Wanted back in 2005 ? Roadside billboards with ads on them would totally be a thing. If only they weren't greedy and cocking up the implementation. With new games, they'll still charge full price on top of serving these real ads that will only pay them and they'll mess something up guaranteed so that users will have problems with it in the end.

[GoStormPlays]

EA forgot that FC exists.

[Donut417]

15 hours ago, joshfrog said:

 

definition of insanity: EA and Ubisoft

Doesn't work. People will be stupid and still buy. EA will make boat loads of money. I mean look at all the streaming services. They added ad supported tiers and they make more money on those than the ad free tiers. People don't go for the ad free because the ad supported tiers are also getting too expensive. All the streaming services started doing this because they figured they can make bank.

 

So basically I can see all major studios doing some kind of ads in the future. Lets hope they do get stupid with it. Like @GOTSpectrum said, if its bill boards that's done tastefully it will be ok, but as an American I know greed. American gaming companies will get stupid with it because they are greedy fucks like all of corporate America.

[darknessblade]

I can already expect them to use the AD-server for  ALWAYS-ONLINE-DRM as well.

And the second they take that server offline you can't play the game anymore even if its a singleplayer game.

[Thaldor]

EA falling to the good old ads in games.

 

I don't know are the game designers and generally developers so dense or just stupid that even their marketing and buyer teams cannot see the most brilliant thing in games.
Don't sell ads, sell ad space in the game and partnerships.

 

Like this is as old as Gran Turismo games with RUF cars. I always hated that GT's has "Porsches" in them but under their "body partner" RUF because they couldn't secure license to use Porsches. Just comes to me as the semi-old Finnish sketch about sponsorships in rally:

Driver "Tell me what is sponsorship."

Map reader "Sponsorship is kind of modern marketing where athlete or someone else gets stickers or cloth badges."

Driver "okay... Don't dare say you have let them stick these stickers to the car for free."

Map reader "No. I did pay for them."

 

Like seriously, they pay licenses to use some brands likeness in their games? How f***ing stupid that is. No, you go to them and say "hey, I have this game and it would be great thing for the games realism if you would like to sponsor these things for the game, we could get a bit more budget to make the game better and you would get a great ad for your products." You don't pay Nike to have Air Jordan's in your basketball game, Nike pays you to have Air Jordan's in your basketball game or you go to Adidas and all players in your game wear Adidas sneakers and if not them Puma and whatelse, if all falls, f*** them and you create some mockup company that seems all of them but aren't enough for them to sue you.

Same with car games: You don't pay to Ferrari to have Ferraris in your game, Ferrari pays you to have Ferraris in your game or you go and get Lamborghini to pay. Hell, even better, you make it and auction, let the companies fight over who pays you the most to have their cars in your game or if you are cunning like a fox who has graduated in cunning from Oxford University, you make them fight over who pays more to not have their bloodiest competitors cars in your game. Or both.

Gamers won't notice that you got paid by Toyota to have Supra in your game, Nissan for Z350 and Ferrari for excluding Lamborghini, they will notice you have real cars in your game and they can drool all over them and good part of your budget just game from car manufacturers.

 

This however requires that you have high enough product to sell ad space and make companies want to have their products in your game instead of some made by you look a likes. But I wouldn't believe any AAA (or AAAA as they now want to call themselves) companies would have that problem.

[BiG StroOnZ]

18 minutes ago, Thaldor said:

EA falling to the good old ads in games.

 

I don't know are the game designers and generally developers so dense or just stupid that even their marketing and buyer teams cannot see the most brilliant thing in games.
Don't sell ads, sell ad space in the game and partnerships.

 

Like this is as old as Gran Turismo games with RUF cars. I always hated that GT's has "Porsches" in them but under their "body partner" RUF because they couldn't secure license to use Porsches. Just comes to me as the semi-old Finnish sketch about sponsorships in rally:

Driver "Tell me what is sponsorship."

Map reader "Sponsorship is kind of modern marketing where athlete or someone else gets stickers or cloth badges."

Driver "okay... Don't dare say you have let them stick these stickers to the car for free."

Map reader "No. I did pay for them."

 

Like seriously, they pay licenses to use some brands likeness in their games? How f***ing stupid that is. No, you go to them and say "hey, I have this game and it would be great thing for the games realism if you would like to sponsor these things for the game, we could get a bit more budget to make the game better and you would get a great ad for your products." You don't pay Nike to have Air Jordan's in your basketball game, Nike pays you to have Air Jordan's in your basketball game or you go to Adidas and all players in your game wear Adidas sneakers and if not them Puma and whatelse, if all falls, f*** them and you create some mockup company that seems all of them but aren't enough for them to sue you.

Same with car games: You don't pay to Ferrari to have Ferraris in your game, Ferrari pays you to have Ferraris in your game or you go and get Lamborghini to pay. Hell, even better, you make it and auction, let the companies fight over who pays you the most to have their cars in your game or if you are cunning like a fox who has graduated in cunning from Oxford University, you make them fight over who pays more to not have their bloodiest competitors cars in your game. Or both.

Gamers won't notice that you got paid by Toyota to have Supra in your game, Nissan for Z350 and Ferrari for excluding Lamborghini, they will notice you have real cars in your game and they can drool all over them and good part of your budget just game from car manufacturers.

 

This however requires that you have high enough product to sell ad space and make companies want to have their products in your game instead of some made by you look a likes. But I wouldn't believe any AAA (or AAAA as they now want to call themselves) companies would have that problem.

 

You might have a future career in advertising!

 

 

[Motifator]

Well yeah, except Parasite Eve was actually an impressive game for all I barely remember. Last time I think I might have played it on the PS1 some 15-20 years ago looking at the pictures. I recall it was a game like Resident Evil games. The restaurant part is where I recall it more from. It wasn't a title I played a lot since I believe I was scared, and found it hard because I was small... but really in those games those advertisements fit in some how. It just doesn't feel anything is as good as it used to be, like back then...

[Just A Name]

On 5/12/2024 at 1:47 AM, Thaldor said:

Like this is as old as Gran Turismo games with RUF cars. I always hated that GT's has "Porsches" in them but under their "body partner" RUF because they couldn't secure license to use Porsches.

AFAIK, the reason why RUF was in so many 2000s and early 2010s racing games because EA (always the bad guy) had an exclusive deal with Porsche for their NFS franchise, which Porsche cars could only be represented in NFS games. But, because the audience wants a Porsche in the game, many studios decided to use RUF cars in their games because RUF is an actual car manufacture with its own VIN and making a Porsche lookalike is hard due to the legend silhouette of the 911 (not to mention they can be sued by either EA or Porsche for allegedly copying 911's design)