The benefits of ad-supported gaming
Posted May 8th 2006 4:25PM by Chris Thilk
Filed under: Product Placement, Online
Seventh-cousin to our late-sister site Joystiq has an interesting
examination of the benefits to gamers of product placement and advertising within video games. The commentary was spurred by a reader questioning the logic of Microsoft's recent purchase of Massive to deliver in-game ads. Here's a synopsis:
- It's good for gaming. Ad dollars have allowed publishers to keep creating games that otherwise might not have gotten the budget-love they would have otherwise. Additionally, online games at places like Shockwave.com and Yahoo wouldn't exist at all were it not for advertiser support.
- Ad-support could lead to free versions of some online gaming platforms such as Xbox Live Gold. If people are willing to view ads in exchange for free access to members-only perks than the gaming experience is enhanced by their participation.
- Speaking of enhancing the experience, it's the presence of those brands in the virtual gaming world that lends such realism to the environment. Without them, or with ads for fake products, the games seem kind of silly and don't capture that extra level of detail.
And speaking of Microsoft, it
announced (to the surprise of no one) that it will utilize Massive's technology to deliver ads to the Xbox Live online gaming platform.
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