Comments on: Google Gets Into In-Game Advertising

By: Juuso - Game Producer

Juuso - Game Producer — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 06:29:27 +0000

@Michael: I’m quite confident that those advertisers will figure out where to stick ads… perhaps we just focus on making games ;)

@Mason: I’ll give you couple of examples. First is “strengthening brand/imago”. Companies who advertise on major events might only display their logo there, like “Nokia”. The main reason is not to get people to buy instantly, but to increase the brand awarness.

Other more practical example could be Pizza game. Let’s suppose there’s a game where you deliver or make pizzas. What if both in the start and in the end of the game there would be pizza ad (maybe even localized – with phone numbers). That would work bit simlarly as those movies on TV, that display pizza ads before and after the movie.

By: Mason

Mason — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:39:54 +0000

I wonder how effective advertising in games can really be. Game advertising seems more like TV where you blast to as many people as you can hoping to attract 1 pct. and have no ability to track how effective the campaign is. So either it will be billboards in the middle of games that are read only, or clickable? I can’t image clicking on an ad in the middle of playing a game and temporarily disrupting the experience.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:56:59 +0000

Perhaps we as game makers should start to think about which games we could make to best facilitate ad placement??! Ok… maybe we shouldn’t. BUT – I can assure you that people are doing just that right now.

Attack of the Killer Billboards, anyone?!

By: Juuso - Game Producer

Juuso - Game Producer — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:57:45 +0000

I believe they will eventually end up their way into casual games. I wonder how they will affect on pricing: will “greedy companies” still keep charging the current prices… or would it mean more free casual games, that’s left to see. I suppose they will use it only as a means to expand business – which would mean no decreased prices for consumers.

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:27:35 +0000

Yes i guess there’s a place for it in certain games, just not the sort I buy. Question is, will ads make it into casual games?

Also I remember the fake ads in Duke Nukem 3D, they were cool.