Reactions to In-Game Advertising

Gamasutra's latest Question of the Week deals with the growing trends of in-game advertising. As usual, the site receives comments from varied industry professionals as well as general readers. As one might expect, the general sentiment is that it is inevitable that in-game ads will become more prevalent as time goes on. One response points out, "Any time money can be extracted from a form of media, it will be." A few responses point out that in-game ads will help secure elusive funding, some condemn the presence of advertising in games altogether, but in general the concensus seems to be that considering such ads are surely only going to become more common, the most important thing is ensuring that each advertising model fits the game in which it is being used. Microsoft's Daniel Drew notes the rapidly rising costs associated with game development, surmising that many publishers may not want or be able to fund certain projects without alternative revenue schemes. "I think it will be especially important for independent developers - just as it is for websites - where selling advertising space may well be their ONLY source of funding," he states. On the other end of the spectrum, Paul Garceau of New Dawn Productions says, "Advertising should be kept outside of the video game and off the game machines. Video games are expressly rooted in entertainment, and marketing is not part of what a video game ought to be. I do not want my hard earned cash wasted on a marketing campaign that I have absolutely no desire to be exposed to." Entelepon's Ryan Bailey warns against developers becoming "very susceptible to changes that are requested by advertisers, or that encourage advertising, as has happened with TV and newspapers." In that vein, Creat Studio's Dimage Sapelkin points out that realistic settings are much more conducive to ads than other settings, and wonders if that may indirectly influence where games take place. One anonymous response is more optomistic, focusing on various potential positive aspects of in-game ads:

Yes, it provides additional funding - defraying marketing expenses, maximizing publisher profit, and creating additional incentive for development of new games. Every game is unique and needs to be treated uniquely, so marketers that create customized ads for individual games that enhance a game's alternate reality will actually make games better. Taking an ad formula and applying it across categories and brands is not a good idea.