[Taku]

Get ready for TV-style commercials in console and PC games

Verging on Black Mirror territory
By Rob Thubron June 30, 2021, 5:18 AM

A hot potato: Have you ever been playing your favorite video game and thought, "Yeah, this is fun and all, but I wish it had some TV-style commercials trying to sell me crap"? It's pretty unlikely, but one company simply doesn't care about how you feel and is set to make this nightmare scenario a reality.

Axios reports that an advertising platform called playerWON, owned and operated by TV ad tech company Simulmedia, has been testing console game ads for over a year—they're also coming to PC. The tests have been successful, according to the firm, and it has now signed deals with Electronic Arts and Tencent's Hi-Rez Studios to put them in more games. Yay!

The ads try to offer some incentives for viewers. Players get to determine whether they want to watch a 15-second or 30-second commercial in exchange for an in-game reward, such as skins and avatars. Presumably, the longer ads come with better benefits.

The feature is being justified by the fact that most 18-34-year-olds are cord-cutters unreachable through traditional methods of advertising such as TV commercials. Moreover, in-game ads are reportedly cheaper and more efficient than brand integrations like those in NBA 2K.

Simulmedia claims its research shows players are willing to watch up to ten ads per day for some freebies. It also said that during the pilot campaign with F2P MOBA Smite, "players were much more likely (22%) to play a game and spend money within the game (11%), if they watched in-game ads that gave them access to more gaming perks."

It appears these ads will be limited to free-to-play games that rely on in-game purchases to make money. Given what happened with the Oculus Quest ads in Blaston and the NBA 2K21 outrage, one would assume studios won't add commercials to their paid-for games. But nothing's certain in big business.

"The acceleration of Free-to-play (F2P) games across Console and PC, like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Call of Duty Warzone and Roblox, means that audiences and play time have seen explosive growth, yet the vast majority of players, over 90%, never spend money F2P games," Simulmedia's EVP, Gaming and OTT, Dave Madden, told Axios.

Even if the ads are limited to free console and PC titles, this is definitely going to anger the majority of gamers. Nevertheless, Simulmedia plans to launch in-game ads in roughly a dozen more titles by the year's end.

Via Techspot.

[Bedders]

Reminds me of this:

[Taku]

"Before inducing seizures."

But hey, what are a few seizures if there's money to be made?

BONUS: The ad platform is actually named: PlayerWON.

[darthnovawave]

Ugh, it is bad enough to have this be commonplace in mobile games anymore, and I tend to quit playing most of those kinds of games very quickly. Bringing it into pc/console gaming might bring a short term boost to profits, but I imagine it would similarly drive a lot of casual players off too much faster than they might otherwise fade away. Short term gain, long term loss.

[Taku]

Though I hadn't thought about it until today, my knee-jerk reaction is that it is inevitable.

If EA (*spit*) is going to get on board with it, smaller companies will have be forced to plan for it to include advertising to get any kind of exposure. Front-end money and a continuous income stream are too enticing to discard dismiss.

If STO adds in-game ads for F2P users as an opt-in in exchange for some tchotchke (say, a monthly DIL stipend), they can monetize the player base even more directly. No need to mine data if you can tell advertisers that "We served 'X' many ads, and 'Y' many were clicked on." But break it down into collatable demographics? Pair the ad responses with age, sex, location, local time of day, income, in-game spending habits, hours played per day... you get the idea (I hope).

For an older, continually rumored to be dying title, a major influx of cash could keep it hanging on for a few more years.

The big bonus for paid players (Not whales, but Lifers) is that the devs won't necessarily need to keep raising in-game prices or develop crazier and crazier bundles to milk the player base of all of their its cash.

But let me think on it some more before you call me insane.

[Heyallo]

*calls Taku insane just because he can* hehe

[Vox]

I mean given how 2K have gone with NBA over the years, it wouldn't surprise me if they were the exception to the rule. It might be in their games, it might not branch out....at least not yet.

On the other hand this is the video game industry so if it did, I wouldn't be surprised.

[ForTheGamer]

As much as I don't want more ads to be in games, or I have to deal with them, I'm slowly realizing that they'll be normalized before long. I really wish it wasn't so, but it is going to be a norm.

[Bar'ol]

leave it to ea to be frontrunner for this lol.

[Taku]

As much as I don't want more ads to be in games, or I have to deal with them, I'm slowly realizing that they'll be normalized before long. I really wish it wasn't so, but it is going to be a norm.

People freaked out when intro and outro promo boxes were put on TV. Now Discovery Networks pinch the last 60 seconds or so of every show into a youtube style box and the rest of the screen is ads for their apps and streaming service. Sporting events have scoring bubbles that carry sponsorships. Hell, around here the weather warnings are sponsored. "The Dobbs Tire & Auto Tornado Warning" Programs have been trimmed over time. 30 minute comedies used to be 24-25 minutes of actual program and 5-6 minutes of commercials. Now it's closer to 20-21 minutes of program and the rest is promos and commercials. If you can get 45 minutes of actual drama out of an hour-long show, you're doing good.

The new layouts at Twitter, IMDB, Facebook, purt near everywhere really, are raged against for 2 months(?) and when reversion fails to materialize we accept it and carry on. Incremental creep. Power creep. T5 to T5U to T5X to T6 to T6X to Fleet T6X.

In-game commercial breaks are inevitable. We will scream, but we will also want to play GTA IX. So we'll give in and deal with it.

[Hippieslayer555]

"Hey Johnson, it appears most of these young people are attempting to get away from the amount of advertisements we shove in their faces. Any ideas on how to combat this?"

"I know boss! We'll find a way to invade their favourite hobbies and subject them to even more adverts."

"That's genius man!"

[Taku]

You got to be where they are if you want to force Doritos into their consciousness, man.