Full Motion Game Ads
The Wall Street Journal has a news story on Massive Inc's new game ads, which are going beyond static images. Anarchy Online is the first game to be updated with full motion and sound ads, which will run for about 15 seconds. Massive only charges advertisers if people actually watch the full ad, which are activated when a player comes close to an advertising spot in the game.
The introduction of full-motion ads on games gives advertisers more options. Massive's Mr. Davis says Hollywood movie studios have shown particular interest in running 15-second movie trailers in online games. Mr. Rich says Paramount may be interested in such ads, but emphasized that the content of any such ads shouldn't turn off gamers. [...] Massive says its technology works for both online games and consoles, but it hasn't yet negotiated a deal allowing for ad-insertion in console games. Mr. Davis says he hopes to strike a console game deal soon. Edward Williams, managing director at Harris Nesbitt Equity Research in New York, says the videogame ads won't take off until console games are included.
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exigence7
replyMovie Trailers actually sounds cool to me. If advertisers got creative and funny enough, like having gnomes use Bengay, I bet people wouldn't mind so much. The developer/publisher/whoever really should give a small discount if they are getting a good money from the ads though. Something that gives them some profit and makes it a bit cheaper for the consumer is a win win situation, and it would turn some of the animosity of the whole situation off.
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There is a certain pricepoint that the end user is almost always willing to pay. Going below this price point isn't going to necessarily generate more sales to compensate for the reduced price point.
That being said, the simple fact of the matter is that games cost an inordinate amount of money to make and (in the case of MMOs) maintain. Having advertisers (or more appropriately, "sponsors") can mean a few more months of development, or more money for servers, or even more advertising of the game itself to try to make a larger community. All of these can make for a better experience for the player, as well as increased profit chance for the developers.
As long as the ads themselves don't annoy players to the point where they stop paying money, it's nearly a win-win situation.
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