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EA CEO Comment about in-game ads resulted in some hilarious social media replies

PLASTICA-MAN

PLASTICA-MAN

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,198
Big companies tried to force NFTs and didn't succeed. They are trying to force generative AI elements and people went against it and this won't have a huge advancement. theyt think they gonna get away with this? They are really underestimating the general mob power.
 
tok9

tok9

Prophet of Truth
Member
Nov 2, 2017
2,004
I assume this means an in-game ad like a billboard as opposed to a literal full ad
 
PLASTICA-MAN

PLASTICA-MAN

Member
Oct 26, 2017
24,198
Btw the first game is BF 2042 and the other one is is Destiny 2 in those tweets, what is the second one? Elden Ring?
 
Teeth

Teeth

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,971
They've done it it a few games already, no? Something like Shawn White's snowboarding had Strive gum ads in it.
 
CosmiKu

CosmiKu

Member
Jul 9, 2023
788
tok9 said:
I assume this means an in-game ad like a billboard as opposed to a literal full ad
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With advertising it always starts off small or low key, and they demand more and more of your attention as time goes on.

Just look at YouTube ads. They started off as short ads at the start of the video, skippable after 5 seconds. Then the time it took to skip the ads got progressively longer and longer until you couldn't skip them anymore.

Then an ad appeared at the end of the video.

Then adverts appeared in the middle of the video.

Then you get 2 unskippable ads at the start of the video.

Then you get an extra 2 unskippable ads less than 1 minute into the video, with more coming every 5 minutes.

Now YouTube ads are so bad, they're hijacking Apple TV screensavers when your video is paused, stopping your device from going to sleep and pumping adverts into your living room. It's grotesque.
 
Azerth

Azerth

Prophet of Truth - Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,280
ive always been surprised that games that take place in real world never had billboard with real places.
 
tok9

tok9

Prophet of Truth
Member
Nov 2, 2017
2,004
CosmiKu said:
With advertising it always starts off small or low key, and they demand more and more of your attention as time goes on.

Just look at YouTube ads. They started off as short ads at the start of the video, skippable after 5 seconds. Then the time it took to skip the ads got progressively longer and longer until you couldn't skip them anymore.

Then an ad appeared at the end of the video.

Then adverts appeared in the middle of the video.

Then you get 2 unskippable ads at the start of the video.

Then you get an extra 2 unskippable ads less than 1 minute into the video, with more coming every 5 minutes.

Now YouTube ads are so bad, they're hijacking Apple TV screensavers when your video is paused, stopping your device from going to sleep and pumping adverts into your living room. It's grotesque.
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Sure potentially. I'm just pointing out what I think is meant by the initial quote. That said, I'd actually be surprised if they don't already have games that do that, it's definitely a service that's provided and they have a lot of billboard related video games
 
Dead Man Typing

Dead Man Typing

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,979
Product placement in games creates additional licensing problems if you want to sell the game on future platforms.

I'm still worried we'll lose Splinter Cell Chaos Theory due to that chewing gum in an early cutscene. I wonder if its the reason for Monster Energy being removed from Death Stranding Director's Cut.
 
Billfisto

Billfisto

Member
Oct 30, 2017
15,305
Canada
CosmiKu said:
With advertising it always starts off small or low key, and they demand more and more of your attention as time goes on.

Just look at YouTube ads. They started off as short ads at the start of the video, skippable after 5 seconds. Then the time it took to skip the ads got progressively longer and longer until you couldn't skip them anymore.

Then an ad appeared at the end of the video.

Then adverts appeared in the middle of the video.

Then you get 2 unskippable ads at the start of the video.

Then you get an extra 2 unskippable ads less than 1 minute into the video, with more coming every 5 minutes.

Now YouTube ads are so bad, they're hijacking Apple TV screensavers when your video is paused, stopping your device from going to sleep and pumping adverts into your living room. It's grotesque.
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Yep. When will people realize that we're in full late stage capitalism enshittification mode?

Quit prefacing stuff with "if they do it ethically" or "it makes sense if it's limited to" or whatever. They need to show infinite growth, and that won't happen if they let things stay at "reasonable".

They're raptors constantly testing for weakness in the fence, and you're over here saying "well, this part's weak, but if you only push at it a little bit we won't mind."
 
KarmaCow

KarmaCow

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,216
tok9 said:
I assume this means an in-game ad like a billboard as opposed to a literal full ad
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With how main menus are already designed with flyout panels and slideshows to advertise the latest update/dlc/store, there's no way those also wont be filled with non-game ads as well.

The only question is if they'll also put it into scene transitions and pause screens.
 
ResetGreyWolf

ResetGreyWolf

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,457
CosmiKu said:
With advertising it always starts off small or low key, and they demand more and more of your attention as time goes on.

Just look at YouTube ads. They started off as short ads at the start of the video, skippable after 5 seconds. Then the time it took to skip the ads got progressively longer and longer until you couldn't skip them anymore.

Then an ad appeared at the end of the video.

Then adverts appeared in the middle of the video.

Then you get 2 unskippable ads at the start of the video.

Then you get an extra 2 unskippable ads less than 1 minute into the video, with more coming every 5 minutes.

Now YouTube ads are so bad, they're hijacking Apple TV screensavers when your video is paused, stopping your device from going to sleep and pumping adverts into your living room. It's grotesque.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

But YouTube is free. If you have the paid version of YouTube, you'll have an ad-free experience.

I don't think this is comparable to AAA gaming at all. Free mobile games already (genuinely) have ads not too far from the ones in the OP, and that's been the case since smartphone gaming even became a thing.

The tweets in the OP are funny, but this is very obviously not what EA means. The batteries in Alan Wake being a real-world brand is more the kind of subtle advertising that I'd expect we'll see more of
 
BossAttack

BossAttack

Member
Oct 27, 2017
43,290
Ads have been in games for a long time. Or do you not crave a can of Monster EnergyTM after a long session of delivering packages in Death Stranding?
 
Billfisto

Billfisto

Member
Oct 30, 2017
15,305
Canada
Even if you say "whatever, they're fine if they're billboards or in-game products or whatever", and they actually limit it to those, what about the knock-on effects?

If they're making a bunch of money on putting real-world products into games, do you think that incentivizes them to make games with settings where those aspects would be incongruous?
 

Firefly

Member
Jul 10, 2018
8,760
Manmademan said:
tell me this isn't real
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It 100% is. I think it was all removed in the Remaster though.

Alan-Wake-Verizon-Billboard.jpg


266163473ec88f32c91b008c916a31d4.jpg
 
ManOfWar

ManOfWar

Member
Jan 6, 2020
2,506
Brazil
Last week I was watching a Nascar race and was shocked about the constant stream of ads interrupting the race. I had never watched it the US broadcast. Here, in Brazil, you just don't interrupt a sport event.

It's crazy to me how people in the US put up with this. And, at the same time, seeing how cultural this is, all I can say is that games full of ads is just a matter of time, really.
 
finaljedi

finaljedi

Member
Jul 15, 2018
530
Cincinnati, OH
c0Zm1c said:
Last week I was watching a Nascar race and was shocked about the constant stream of ads interrupting the race. I had never watched it the US broadcast. Here, in Brazil, you just don't interrupt a sport event.

It's crazy to me how people in the US put up with this. And, at the same time, seeing how cultural this is, all I can say is that games full of ads is just a matter of time, really.
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American sports really lean hard into this, things that happen in the game have sponsors even in person live. "That double is brought to you by Anderson restoration" "We have a substitution brought to you by Penn Station subs". I went to a baseball game with a friend a few weeks back and we kept joking about the fact that every single action taken seem to have a sold sponsor attached to it.
 
Temp_User

Temp_User

Member
Oct 30, 2017
4,748
Crazy Taxi remains for me as the best use and arguably, the only acceptable use of ads in-game. Places like KFC and Tower Records serve as landmarks in navigating the map and feels natural to the game given its arcadey and irreverent tone - and the fact that you are playing as a taxi driver delivering people to local places and sh1t.

CrazyTaxi_DC_Art_TOWER_RECORDS.jpg
 
John Harker

John Harker

Knows things...
Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,431
Santa Destroy
Are we on average too young to recall that in game advertising as very much a multi hundred million dollar business not that long ago? And that every publisher under the sun was doing it fairly frequently as an alternative revenue stream?

It only lessened as advertising dollars went to sponsoring streamers and YTers to be around game advertising instead of in-game, and was seen as a way of helping grow awareness and reach of titles to sell titles, and grow platforms.

But now that's sort of stagnating and many FtP games don't rely on game sales as much, it's all about time spent in game and engagement with said game, so now publishers, devs, and advertisers are dusting off the old playbooks to bring in incremental revenue off activity player engagement again. Whats old is new again!
 
RetroGiant

RetroGiant

Member
Oct 25, 2017
598
Didn't EA already do this with Burnout Paradise when it was released back in the day? Maybe even NFS.

Edit: Yep.

obamaburnout.jpg
 
Izunavis

Izunavis

Member
Oct 27, 2017
848
UK
B2rwykH.jpeg


Biggest fear is that we get full blown ads in our games. Wipeout HD tried this and it extended load times, the outrage was justified and they took it out.
 
ultraluna

ultraluna

Member
Jun 3, 2020
2,047
ManOfWar said:
Last week I was watching a Nascar race and was shocked about the constant stream of ads interrupting the race. I had never watched it the US broadcast. Here, in Brazil, you just don't interrupt a sport event.

It's crazy to me how people in the US put up with this. And, at the same time, seeing how cultural this is, all I can say is that games full of ads is just a matter of time, really.
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i honestly think american sports were created for advertising, it's such a slog to watch if you're not used to it
 
CosmiKu

CosmiKu

Member
Jul 9, 2023
788
ResetGreyWolf said:
But YouTube is free. If you have the paid version of YouTube, you'll have an ad-free experience.

I don't think this is comparable to AAA gaming at all. Free mobile games already (genuinely) have ads not too far from the ones in the OP, and that's been the case since smartphone gaming even became a thing.

The tweets in the OP are funny, but this is very obviously not what EA means. The batteries in Alan Wake being a real-world brand is more the kind of subtle advertising that I'd expect we'll see more of
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I don't think advertisers see it the same way as you.

They will want more and more and more. They don't care whether something is free or not, they just want to get ads in front of people.
 
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