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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land Paid downloadable content and in-game advertising are two touchy issues in gaming discussions, and two recent releases have in a way brought both together, one more artfully than the other.
Talk of urinals and deodorant ads in games got me wondering how long people have been talking about in-game ads. I found some chatter from 1995. The era of “Cool Spot”, the 7Up video game and other in-game ad dreams.
Hey you got your video game violence in my in-game ads! You got your in-game ads in my video game violence! Two great trends go great together in a study that says blood-spattered brands are more memorable. Well, duh.
Nearly 24 hours after it went out in mid-April, John Warner checked on the numbers for Raycatcher – a game he and a partner designed and distributed over Steam. The first day, it sold 1,000 copies for $US5. But pirates had also made 35,000 copies for free.
We’ve heard today that, as part of Microsoft’s already-announced round of 5000 job cuts, up to 75% of the workforce at Microsoft’s in-game advertising service, Massive, have been laid off.
IGA Worldwide’s in the business of in-game advertising, of course, and the figures it cites are its own. But according to their research, gamers respond to ads a lot more favourably than some would believe.
