p2pnet - rss feed: Meet spectator advertising
p2pnet.net News:- My daughter, Emma, and I rented a kiddie-flick in which the dogs, well, talk and in which one of the canines urgently needs medicinal nourishment. And Lo! - an actor holds out a can of dog food with the maker’s name very, very visible. And Mel Gibson was in effect pushing Philip Morris smokes for quite a while.
But this kind of advertising also features in video games where, “players face a plethora of ads … from billboards on virtual streets to soft drink machines,” as Reuters explains.
And now, leaving no stone unturned, “the industry has a new target in mind - video game spectators,” says the story, going on:.
“Microsoft Corp unveiled its latest gaming console, the Xbox 360, at E3 with technology that will allow advertisers and video game developers to design games around virtual tournaments.”
Advertisers and gaming companies are betting that in-game advertising will, “soon will rival television, newspaper and Internet spending,” says Reuters, pointing out that gamers already spend as much time playing as surfing.
Yankee Group analyst Michael Goodman is quoted as predicting game advertising will reach, “hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue by 2010 as advertisers increasingly tap into the changing demographics of the gaming market”currently dominated by 18- to 34-year old males.
But, “game developers are hoping to expand their revenue base by making games that appeal to women as well as older and younger players.
“The promise of in-game advertising is it’s going to be very, very big,” said Ankarino Lara, a director at online gaming site GameSpot, is quoted as saying.
Will someone soon come out with a video gaming TiVo? Or has it been done already?
Stay tuned ; )
JN
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See:-
Reuters - ‘Spectator advertising’ next frontier in games, May 18, 2005
May 19th, 2005 at 12:56 pm
There are already “No intro” hacks out for games that insist you watch the intro sequence every time you start the game. I’m sure there’ll be “No ad” hacks as well.
Especially since any game that grabs ads from the net could also report all kinds of other interesting info to it’s owners as well…
This is really gonna be a can of worms. Are privacy laws ready for this? No way. Are game EULA’s gonna try and cover “you agree to let us spy on everything you do while our game is installed on your box?” I’m sure they will.
And i’m sure i won’t be buying any game that tries to phone home for ads.
May 19th, 2005 at 4:27 pm
This looks like a good way to finance new movies. Companies would have to pay a fee to get their product featured in a scene. I know that this is already going on, but this may become the main form a revenue for studios. If done correctly, the studios could use p2p as a free way to distribute their advertisements.
Imagine if a movie studio releases a movie online as soon as it is completed. If the studio has a reputation for producing good movies, the movie would be downloaded and copied by millions. Each company that placed their advertisisement in a scene would have their product seen by anyone watching the movie. Since the product is a part of the movie, it would be much more difficult to filter out than say a commercial. A fight scene next to a billboard would be much harder to filter out than say a pop up ad.
It is high time for the studios to accept the fact that they cannot control filesharing. They should learn to embrace it as a new way to fatten their wallets. Peer to peer is here to stay whether the cartels like it or not, and it can be the studios best friend or worse enemy. It is up to them. All the independent filmakers should make a note of this and use it to compete with theestablishment.