Advertising in Video Games

Product placement is one of the staples of marketing and has been seen in just about all mediums that allow for video (TV, movies) but recently in-game advertising and product placement has risen sharply while video games have become more generally accepted by a mass audience. Driving games like Burnout and GTA have billboards and other advertisements for real world companies in their fictional cities. Games like Fallout like to keep their ads true to the time period, in the example of Fallout the ads are very much like the ads of the 1950’s because in their timeline the US stayed in the 50’s mentality all the way up to the cataclysmic nuclear war that led to the “fallout.” But even though these ads are reminiscent of the time period one of the most innovative ideas for period marketing will be a part of the upcoming Ghostbusters: The Video Game. The game is set in 1991 and at least two of their sponsors (Coke and Doritos) have agreed to put in 1991 advertising to keep with the timeline of the game. In the new videos that feature the Times Square cutscene, an old school Coke logo and an old Doritos ad can be seen in the background. It is unknown at this point how many other old ads they have in the game but it is an impressive detail to add to the authenticity of the game. Advertising in games is just like any other media, the ad needs to be appropriate in its context, in driving games anything can be put on a billboard because just about everything is actually advertised on a billboard. Sports games also do a good job of incorporating advertisements just like in the actual sporting event. An example of this is in the game NBA2k7 one of the correspondents reports in the “Gatorade around the cooler update.” It is appropriate because those are the kind of promotions that actually occur in live NBA broadcasts. The advertising can actually really add to the authenticity of a game but it can’t be overdone. If it gets in the way of the gameplay if can be a real hassle, so the developers and the sponsors need to tread the fine line between wanting to get their product featured and not annoying the gamers who are trying to enjoy the gameplay experience. But as of right now advertising in games seems to pretty tame which is good, we don’t have anything that resembles “pop-ups” on the internet. However advertising will increase in the coming years considering how video games are becoming more in the forefront of society, I mean I saw an ad for Wheelman before a movie in a theater, there would have never been an ad for a video game before a movie just 10 years ago. Here’s hoping everything stays in control.