Pong creator predicts more in-game advertising

[DealBot]

Al Alcorn (One of the creators of Pong, a founding member of the team that created Atari and one of the first members of Apple) is now running a company that measures mobile phone content and advertising use in the US. He recently said that he believes games and other entertainment are going to become a major place for advertising since the way we consume media has changed. "I think we are going to see more advertising done in a way that will not offend the user much, but will pay for some of this content. The new technology is very accessible." he said.

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[aristotle]

"I think we are going to see more advertising done in a way that will not offend the user much

Hmm... is it possible for advertising not to offend the user much? The entire premise of an advertisement is to capture attention to promote a product or service. When I am playing a game, the last thing I want to be is distracted by product placement (yes, Guitar Hero is one of the newest franchises guilty of this) or other various ad promotions. But I guess we'll see what they can come up with.

[wildlele]

Personally I hate in-game ads but if it pays the bills and lets studios keep cranking out good titles then I can live with it. If the game sucks and has ads.....

[xxdaznboixx]

Have In-game Ads helped out the consumer yet? EA has like the most ad's and they're rumored to start abusing the additional download content aren't they? Although if they're helping keep Counter-Strike free then yay ads

[masked mystery]

There are only a very few games that I will accept advertising in, and only in particular circumstances. Sports games can have advertisements where they normally occur in real life, on a soccer jersey, or a sign in a baseball stadium. Racing games can have licensed cars and parts. I don't even like the sponsored segments to be in games. Unfortunately, I think some companies, such as EA, who seem to be more about money than fun games will make advertising an obtrusive part of the gaming scene any chance they can get.

[WalkingTiger]

In-game ads aren't terrible when they're appropriate; I wouldn't mind seeing, for example, a huge pepsi billboard in Rainbow Six, Vegas, as it seems more realistic in a city setting like that, or even things like a pepsi ad in a Grand Theft Auto game, since those games are loosely based on real life (though that's treading the dangerous line where the anti-game fanatics would preach about how it's too close to real life with RL product placement in it)...

Hopefully, however, we won't ever see ads where they are *not* appropriate... A Burger King sign in God of War, or a Mountain Dew potion in Elder Scrolls would be horrific, for example; I can't imagine any kind of advertising revenue a company could stand to gain that's worth that kind of debacle...

~WalkingTiger

[Jame]

I hate 9in game ads I hope they don't increase they just make the game less real it makes it feel more like tv.

[Guest panpizza15]

I really don't care about in game advertisements. It's just there in the background, it's not like they force you to sit through a commercial to continue playing the game.

[konnichiwa]

If those ads are in the background (like on a wall or something like that) it is fine for me. It would suck though that you are watching a cut scene and you have to see ad before it...

[breadmaster]

If I'm going to be advertised to in-game, there's no way I'd pay full price for it. If there is a single ad in the game, it should be half price. I don't care how much the game costs to make.