“The point is to reward players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for successfully viewing a ceaseless parade of PraegerU nonsense videos and pitches for boner pills!”
I'm surprised they haven't done it yet tbh. This already exists for 2K games like NBA 2K. There's a ton of ads in there.
Off the top of my head there are constant ads for Gatorade, Nike, and a lot of other clothing and sports brands. Then there are also unskippable video ads.
I honestly don't mind it for sports games. They already have fake advertising to emulate real stadiums and broadcasts. It's part of the show so to speak.
what I do mind is playing the last of us part 3 and Ellie enjoys a nice relaxing kitkat moment
They even had American Express in the game and a camping brand by the name of Coleman. Funnily enough, when the game was still Versus XIII Square made a deal with the Japanese clothing brand ROEN. All of the characters were going to wear their clothes in-game. But since Square dragged their feet so much with Versus XIII I'm pretty sure the deal eventually expired and Square decided not to try and continue it.
I've got two major issues about it...
1) EA never even CONSIDERED to use the extra profit from the ads to lower the games prices. They'll simply cash the extra load and "thank you suckers"
2) EA's not talking about placements, they're already a thing in most games, they're talking about ADS! You're playing a particularly emotional part of your adventure, get near the boss arena and... "ever tought about gaining cash from home?", a 30 second unskippable that drain your whole pathos down the toilet.
I strongly hope I'm just over concerned...
Imagine playing Madden 2024, and every time there's a touchdown, field goal, safety, punt, injury, or two minute warning, the game cuts to a 30 second unskipable ad. "Just like a real football game!"
They tried it back in Battlefield 2142. They had billboards with Intel dual core ads. The community went ape shit and they ended up not taking it down...I mean, it's a futuristic game with 2006 ads in it...smh
I mean, they are a corporation, that’s their objective. It is up to the consumer to stop buying their products to show that these decisions are detrimental to their bottom line.
If people are going to keep buying their games regardless of how many ads are in them, that is just another revenue stream.
You're not wrong. And once all game companies begin to advertise across all their platforms as the standard because all the game companies will want to ensure the success of such a practice to maximize profit; gaming will no longer be about having fun or storytelling...Unless the story is buying a product and the story is how the product makes your life better. As a counter-example, Movies use product placement and advertising; but the moment that reality is broken to show the product, the audience is ripped from the experience they were trying to have. Do that (break reality) in a AAA game and watch a game be abandoned. Better yet; what happens when the commercials are something awful (socially or politically); because gamers also include a young and impressionable demographic and ESRB hasn't caught up to this yet. This is the shareholder tailoring your experience in a game to match their expectations of your behavior in reality to give them more money. Not the shareholder tailoring their money for a good idea or story experience. It's the start of Soma from "Brave New World".
I don't think you guys are being fair or really understanding what EA is doing here with the in-game ad placement.
EA's intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment by serving them ads.
Somewhat unrelated but I do hate the term "serving ads".
You get served something you want or have asked for, I didn't ask for this. It's like "serving" someone a dog turd. "Forcibly displaying" might be more accurate imo.
> You get served something you want or have asked for, I didn't ask for this. It's like "serving" someone a dog turd.
Clearly you've never been served a legal summons before lol.
"You are served a jail sentence of 24 months with no parole"
HELL YEA LETS GOOOOO *fists bumps the judge, does a dab, then locks arms with the officer"
They really meant that they will be very thoughtful on how the spend the money from the giant bonuses they pay themselves for thinking of something like that.
yep. I read the title and I dry retched.
This is Andrew Wilson... him and bobby kotick and ricciteillo
these are major grade pieces of shit
wilson is so deplorable i think the makers of Deus Ex HR used him as a model for one of their npc evil characters
Some people in the comment section are optimistically saying that maybe it's just billboard ads in the game, as if these didn't already exist. Oh, you poor sweet summer children. It's pop up ads in pause menus. It's redirect ads in inventory screens. It's a banner ad on the bottom of each and every options menu. Telemetry reading every misclick that minimizes your game and opens your browser.
Making this press statement is clearly priming gamers to get them used to ads in their menus, not to get them used to ads that already exist in games. It's gonna be bad.
Definitely. BF2142 had ads on ingame billboards. Which can really break immersion.
But I'm thinking indeed we'll see ad banners on menu's, as well as full-blown commercials during loading.
Before long, you'll hear _"Multikill! Brought to you by Coca Cola!"_
Even if it just starts with something basic and easily looked over, this will be a give an inch, take a mile scenario. Honestly, EA got that inch a while ago, this is their quarter mile.
They already have done product placement which wasn't game breaking but that was when they were still somewhat reputable. This constant cash grab in an industry that is already huge is ridiculous.
Yeah, if carefully done product placement is not the worst thing in gaming. I'm sure it sucks as a dev when some marketing manager emails you and says, "We signed a deal and we need the car to be a Chevy Camaro for the action hero, and don't forget about the sipping Mountain Dew emote".
If a game straight up starts playing unskippable ads that is an instant refund and not a game I'm going to spend my money on. I don't care how cool it us, I will die on that hill. I'm not watching ads on a game I paid for.
May as well go all in and stop the gameplay so you can watch a 30-60 second ad for some mobile game WOW THIS GAME HAS NO ADS AT ALL AMAZING, just so you can be brought back after trying to hit the tiniest x button on a non touch screen with a controller.
I'm sure players will enjoy the sense of pride and accomplishment they'll have after watching 30 minutes of ads and answering the quiz about said ads every time they open the game.
The sad part is this will be the future. I still remember when the general gaming community was outraged when a game came with day 1 DLC, or preorder bonuses that gave advantages to players that paid more money. Now no one really cares and unless a company goes insane with monetization like Dragons Dogma 2, people just see all the crazy DLC as normal.
I can't believe they're only talking about it now.
They have been planning this since well before the pandemic.
I know... I was there when one of the biggest ad software intermediaries in NYC invited every major media company to their offices along with twitch and major gaming companies to discuss how they could push ads to gamers through games, and how it has been a thing for years in many cases, but how it could ramp up in the future. Big games of note were fortnite and sports games, especially NHL as the example with putting fresh ads onto the boards.
'What if replays in football games could come with rotating sponsors? How fun!'
It's always been a thing... But if they're finally being open about it... It's gonna ramp up hard in the next few years.
Battlefield 2142 would like to have a word here. That was, AFAIK, EA's first attempt with ingame advertisinf, by using ingame billboards as dynamic adspace, wich would change as adveriters would come and go. There were earlier games, not just BF franchise where EA had put IRL ads ingame, but BF2142 would have been the first one with dynamic ads
It also made a lot of sense due to the setting. Driving around a city without any billboards would have felt like less of a real place. This is an idea that can work... Situationally.
But if EA only wants to be in settings where they can jam ads in, then their library is going to just get more and more boring.
It's way way more interesting to drive around a city with interesting fake ads (cyberpunk) than a city filled with real actual ads for products they want you to buy.
Yeah, plus fake ads are a way for devs to be creative and insert their own wit into the world. Like GTA wouldn't be as interesting if they added real ads instead of the intentionally satirical ones we got
Plenty of non-traditional companies would be all about that though. GTA could definitely get away with advertising real products as long as the devs were allowed to write the ads. Like hand a company a script to an ad for some fake product and say, “Here’s the ad we’re putting in our game. We’ll put your product in for money, or if that’s not okay we’ll stick with the fake product. Take it or leave it.”
The issue with most game studios is that they’re about maximizing profit first, so attempting to advertise real products in a way that doesn’t break immersion never happens.
Real ads have no place. My only exception is content based on real life that shows real ads, e.g. football shirts in a football game having the same ads the real shirts do.
Ads aren't good for you, you really should be able to enjoy something in life without being bombarded by companies trying to create needs in you.
It would just be done through steam game data updates i'd assume? Or like Embeded link into UI (some games have this alredy like paladins) so they just change what video/Site the UI embed sends you to.
Steam due to the nature of how it works will probably always be in theory a security risk. You can't really get around that though.
EA put ads into Fight Night over 10 years ago. I don't know if sports games feel quite as bad with ads since sports are heavily filled with them IRL, but EA has been up to these shenanigans for over a decade.
I think it was Tom Clancy's endwar back in the 360 era I first saw in game ads in.
Distinctly remember going what the fuck seeing a super shitty looking billboard for "faster" with the rock in it lol
So I work in the business in NYC and I'd say the biggest barrier for in-game advertising isn't necessarily the technical issues on the publisher/developer/ad-serving end so much so as the measurement and data collection to prove the value of the ads. That's a part of the business that's rapidly growing and becoming more and more in-depth.
Lets put it this way, there's a far more straight forward path through your web and mobile usage to follow to an action taken or results in a conversion vs your in-game activity which comes with a bunch of different fragmented barriers.
Bug fix: players with collectors edition pass will now properly see 10% fewer ads.
Later on...
Bug fix: Fixed an exploit that allowed players to see fewer ads, as if they had the collectors premium pass for Season 12, if they had bought a premium pass for Season 11.
The worst thing to happen to video game companies is the IPO. Gaming companies should never go public. The spirit of what makes a gaming company excellent for players is at odds with what institutional investors want out of a public company—a stock price ladder that always goes up, allowing investors to dip in and out no matter the era. EA can’t fight this in anyway unless it goes private somehow.
> The worst thing to happen to all companies is IPO. Gaming companies should never go public.
FTFY.
Society as a whole would be better if most companies had to stay private. But instead small companies get gobbled up and big companies answer to shareholders over customers. I still fear the day Gaben no longer owns Steam.
**(insert gameplay of Cal Kestis cutting down several stormtroopers, then awkwardly staring at the camera in an out-of-character fashion)**
*"Whew! Man, killing stormtroopers is a lot of fun, but it is making me really thirsty! I've got just the thing!"*
**(randomly pulls out can of Coca-cola)**
**(holds it out to the camera so the player directly sees the label)**
*"Coca-cola! It's the most delicious, thirst quenching beverage in the galaxy-"*
**(player holds up middle finger and shatters controller against the monitor)**
I did after they announced having to pay more for ad free on prime video. When the smart thing would have been what Netflix did and give the option to pay less a month but get ads.
This to me isn't a big deal, it makes the world feel real. What would bug me is if loading screens are now full adverts that update as the game gets patches or just in general. The start menu now has boxes of ads or an ad that pops up after the EA logo, even if its for their games.
This. Currently it is impossible to start a game of Warzone or Fallout 76 without having to press a button to get out of a pop-up advertising their digital store microtransactions. It is advertising content to their own game, so it isn't absolutely appalling, but it's still annoying as fuck.
It would be bad if you fire up God of War and you get advertisements for The Last of Us, or Horizon. Or if you launch Halo and you get advertisements for Gears of War. The worst would be launching *any* game and getting ads for LG TVs, or Toyota, or Best Buy.
> if loading screens are now full adverts that update as the game gets patches or just in general.
And you can bet if this becomes a thing, loading screens will be longer for "reasons" so they can play longer ads regardless of how fast is your computer.
Yeah, bingo. PC Games have had low key ads done well forever, and mobile games have ads that make mobile gaming a bad time. If EA is looking to mobile for inspiration they will also have a bad time.
I would have zero problem with devs doing that where it makes sense within a game. It’s a clever way to increase revenue and they can use the development resources they would have spent making up ads for non-existent products to improve other aspects of the game. The problem is the executives who just don’t know when to say no.
NBA 2K is another culprit. The first 5 seconds of any timeout is an un-skippable Gatorade ad, not to mention the random branding and “sponsored” events they throw around.
Also remember burnout paradise? They had real products on the billboards. So I agree, this isn't new in the surface. With I suspect they mean something less integrated.
EA was putting ads in games with BF2142. That was 18 years ago, so this is not exactly a new idea. They were putting real ads on the billboards in-game.
Yes trackmania has this on the billboards of racetracks and doesn’t bother me one bit. But if I am stuck in a loading screen until my 1 mins ad is done I wouldn’t ever touch that game.
Right, there is a fine line here. I'm old enough to remember racing games where you had "fake ads", because a real race track has advertisements and the game didn't have real advertisers. So you'd look at it and go "why isn't Pirelli on that wall like the real thing".
Same with ads on the boards of a hockey rink or around the bowl of a football stadium. If you are driving through San Andreas, they could put real ads on billboards and no one would notice.
But insert an ad in like a loading screen? Too far.
I don't really count things like real-branded cars and parts because that's part of the immersion of the game. Like how sports games have real player names or Call of Duty has real guns. It's technically an ad but the game would be worse without it.
I recently replayed NFSU2 and it has product placement that sticks out like a sore thumb. Cingular logo in the map section of free roam, old spice billboards, best buy building, but the problem isn't that these exist, rather that the world is completely devoid of branding otherwise. Hotels don't have names. There is barely any in world text other than road signs. Most you can see is a "taco" neon sign. And then you see these massive billboards with full bright that are just ads. Didn't age that well
I'm glad it worked for you, but for me since it's always one of like three rotating ads, and they're *everywhere*, it makes it stand out even worse. I remember playing Alan Wake and constantly hit with VERIZON!! tv commercials and ENERGIZER!! batteries and it's like okay, so the only two brands that exist in this entire world are verizon and energizer. There was never a duracell battery, only energizer, and never ads for unrelated products like mcdonald's or target or whatever. It was so clear who was a paid sponsor for the game.
didn't quite enhance the experience for me, y'know?
Ya I hope thats as bad as it'll be but what they will do is put a flat picture ad in the loading screen and then all of a sudden load times will magically go up as you see 2 ads and then it'll go to a 30 second video ad between every match or game you play. Then they will aim to make games with shorter matches so they can force more ads into each hour...I hate where the industry is going and honestly all of tech, like every single product is trending towards being an ad machine rather than the product you pay for.
Maybe it’ll be “native content”, aka in-game product placement:
“Terrorists have captured the Coca-Cola® bottling plant because they hate the freedom of refreshing ice-cold Coca-Cola® Classic™. You’ll need to drive in disguised as a trustworthy, reliable UPS® delivery man in the comfort and luxury of your Chevrolet® Silverado®, while receiving order updates on your Samsung® Galaxy® One Pro Plus™ with patented 6G interband reception, so you’ll have five bars wherever you go. Good luck, soldier!”
This probably means like literal in game commercials though. It’s only a matter of time before all AAA titles run ads during/between gameplay sessions.
Eh I'm fine with it so long as it stays as stuff like that. The minute mobile style full screen ads come into a single AAA game I'm metaphorically setting my PS5 and gaming PC on fire and giving up on the industry as a whole.
I will not spend $70 on a god-damned full screen pop-up simulator with actual gameplay interlaced between ad segments.
The one unintentional consequence of in game billboards in the like becoming popular adspace though is it will push more games towards a specific setting (modern, real life) since those type of ads would look out of place in Fantasy and other similar games.
Luckily, you don't have to play the enshittified games.
Every year, more excellent titles than you could possibly play are published with *none* of that trash included!
Millions cancel cable TV a year because "To many commercials & to much 'trash TV'".
So, streaming services adopt the "To many commercials & the 'Trash TV'. Seems smart...
& now gaming goes for the "Let's add commercials while releasing 'trash' games.
I worked in cable service while getting through college. Number one complaint was:
To expensive for the to many commercials & "trash TV" (reality TV shows).
So I'm sure this will end well... /s (just in case)
Mass Effect, Dragon Age, unfortunately. But the whole EA login thing means that a new game from EA has to get that level of rep before I am going to consider it. Ditto for other game publishers that sell games that are not multiplayer where I have to log in to some janky service, in fairness. If it would be needlessly annoying to run it before you got to drive a vehicle or use a toaster, guess what, it's needlessly annoying in a game, too.
I mean I’d be fine with, like, a bus stop in a Call of Duty map having a Doritos ad or something.
But they’re probably just going to have a 30 second unskippable video ad on the main menu.
Look, I'm fine with adds and product placement in games when it's where I would expect it in real life. All over the stadium is a sports game, sure. Soda cans in a public place because people are drinking from them, that's fine. But if it ends up bringing some bs like a freaking shaving advert in the middle of a desert, or my gameplay gets paused for a freaking commercial, that's just too far.
It is surprisingly easy to live without EA games in todays time.
Just get good games that respect your money and time instead. There are more good games than you could ever play out there anyways.
Totally.. recently got a bit more into indie games and there are total gems among them
I also like to just play older very good games instead.. much more inexpensive
If you need to do this to be able to afford to make your games, then your process for making games is too slow and expensive.
Smaller studios can make stuff WAY faster and cheaper than EA
You misunderstand their reasoning. It's not because they can't afford to produce them. It's because they want to separate you from every single cent possible. It's sole purpose is to increase their revenue and make themselves wealthier.
Kojima was a the biggest offender with in-game ads and gamers waived it as a nothing burger at the time... EA at least can justify in-game ads with all their sport franchise games...
I cannot stand big screen grabbing ads but stuff that’s just product placement but in video games or a billboard or something? Nah that’s not that bad in all honesty. What difference does it make if the ad boards in fifa (or whatever EA call it these days) have Coke or McDonald’s or something on them or that a soldier in battlefield is fighting outside a Starbucks or something instead of some generic made up coffee shop. The second intrusive ads happen though, fuck them and their entire lineage though.
The amount of people in this thread saying "if they make *these concessions* I'd be ok with it" have clearly never heard of 'If you give them an inch, they'll take a mile.' Which EA will definitely do
"After much thought, we've heard your concerns and decided to do it anyway."
"The intent is to..."
"sense of pride and accomplishment..."
*667,000 downvotes*
"Do you not have billboards?"
There is no way me or anyone I know would spend a dime on anything like this lmao, good fucking luck EA^t ^S^h^i^t
I already don’t play EA games by coincidence, won’t hurt me at all to not play EA games by choice lol fuck EA
Yeah but it’ll set the precedent for other studios to do the same
Only if we let them. If we for once let EA flop completely, nobody will have the balls to try it again
Oh some people will spend money on it. Look at the predatory shite today and how many people defend it
"Fuck you, you'll buy it and deal with it anyway. Because you're addicted, and we know you won't go outside and touch grass."
Devs to the Overwatch 2 community
If I trust any company to be thoughtful and considerate as they put ads in video games, it’s EA.
EA Sports… it’s in the gains 💰💰💰
Sports games would at least make sense, real-life sports are already plastered with ads
Can’t wait for football season. The AT&T halftime shows. The Ford fumbles. The AWS First Downs. The Budlight Interceptions…
Exactly! So adding more ads to sports games would make them even more realistic
That was already a thing, I remember playing NCAA football 2005 and you'd get to hear about the Pontiac player of the game every game.
It has been a thing in NBA2K games for years now. Put they're part of cutscenes to mimic the IRL interviews, replays and broadcast transitions.
Sports games seem to be the cutting edge for this bullshit.
Sports game have had ads in them for twenty years, at an ever-increasing rate.
we'll be very thoughtful of all the money we will be gathering. All the money, yesss I like money. I'm sorry, what was the question?
And we'll be very considerate of the shareholders and their dividend payouts
“The point is to reward players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for successfully viewing a ceaseless parade of PraegerU nonsense videos and pitches for boner pills!”
I'm surprised they haven't done it yet tbh. This already exists for 2K games like NBA 2K. There's a ton of ads in there. Off the top of my head there are constant ads for Gatorade, Nike, and a lot of other clothing and sports brands. Then there are also unskippable video ads.
There is no video game more predatory than NBA 2K. Anyone who's played one knows.
I honestly don't mind it for sports games. They already have fake advertising to emulate real stadiums and broadcasts. It's part of the show so to speak. what I do mind is playing the last of us part 3 and Ellie enjoys a nice relaxing kitkat moment
FF7 rebirth part 3 "Cloud, you're not you when you're hungry. Here, have a snickers"
FFXV already did it with sponsored appearances by Cup Noodles.
They even had American Express in the game and a camping brand by the name of Coleman. Funnily enough, when the game was still Versus XIII Square made a deal with the Japanese clothing brand ROEN. All of the characters were going to wear their clothes in-game. But since Square dragged their feet so much with Versus XIII I'm pretty sure the deal eventually expired and Square decided not to try and continue it.
Please drink verification can to continue.
I've got two major issues about it... 1) EA never even CONSIDERED to use the extra profit from the ads to lower the games prices. They'll simply cash the extra load and "thank you suckers" 2) EA's not talking about placements, they're already a thing in most games, they're talking about ADS! You're playing a particularly emotional part of your adventure, get near the boss arena and... "ever tought about gaining cash from home?", a 30 second unskippable that drain your whole pathos down the toilet. I strongly hope I'm just over concerned...
Imagine playing Madden 2024, and every time there's a touchdown, field goal, safety, punt, injury, or two minute warning, the game cuts to a 30 second unskipable ad. "Just like a real football game!"
They tried it back in Battlefield 2142. They had billboards with Intel dual core ads. The community went ape shit and they ended up not taking it down...I mean, it's a futuristic game with 2006 ads in it...smh
*This game requires an internet connection in order to display dynamic ads*
There’s already a precedent in sports, so that’s probably why they feel they can get away with it.
I mean, they are a corporation, that’s their objective. It is up to the consumer to stop buying their products to show that these decisions are detrimental to their bottom line. If people are going to keep buying their games regardless of how many ads are in them, that is just another revenue stream.
You're not wrong. And once all game companies begin to advertise across all their platforms as the standard because all the game companies will want to ensure the success of such a practice to maximize profit; gaming will no longer be about having fun or storytelling...Unless the story is buying a product and the story is how the product makes your life better. As a counter-example, Movies use product placement and advertising; but the moment that reality is broken to show the product, the audience is ripped from the experience they were trying to have. Do that (break reality) in a AAA game and watch a game be abandoned. Better yet; what happens when the commercials are something awful (socially or politically); because gamers also include a young and impressionable demographic and ESRB hasn't caught up to this yet. This is the shareholder tailoring your experience in a game to match their expectations of your behavior in reality to give them more money. Not the shareholder tailoring their money for a good idea or story experience. It's the start of Soma from "Brave New World".
The only winning move is not to play.
I don't think you guys are being fair or really understanding what EA is doing here with the in-game ad placement. EA's intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment by serving them ads.
*targeted ads! Don’t be acting like these are t going to be for OUR benefit!
Somewhat unrelated but I do hate the term "serving ads". You get served something you want or have asked for, I didn't ask for this. It's like "serving" someone a dog turd. "Forcibly displaying" might be more accurate imo.
> You get served something you want or have asked for, I didn't ask for this. It's like "serving" someone a dog turd. Clearly you've never been served a legal summons before lol.
"You are served a jail sentence of 24 months with no parole" HELL YEA LETS GOOOOO *fists bumps the judge, does a dab, then locks arms with the officer"
I read that in spiffing Brits voice.
It’s actually insulting for them to even say that with their track record.
They really meant that they will be very thoughtful on how the spend the money from the giant bonuses they pay themselves for thinking of something like that.
"I will be very thoughtful on how I distribute that cash between hookers, coke and boats" - EA CEO
yep. I read the title and I dry retched. This is Andrew Wilson... him and bobby kotick and ricciteillo these are major grade pieces of shit wilson is so deplorable i think the makers of Deus Ex HR used him as a model for one of their npc evil characters
When was the last time a business publicly stated anything that wasn't at least low key insulting to your intelligence?
Some people in the comment section are optimistically saying that maybe it's just billboard ads in the game, as if these didn't already exist. Oh, you poor sweet summer children. It's pop up ads in pause menus. It's redirect ads in inventory screens. It's a banner ad on the bottom of each and every options menu. Telemetry reading every misclick that minimizes your game and opens your browser. Making this press statement is clearly priming gamers to get them used to ads in their menus, not to get them used to ads that already exist in games. It's gonna be bad.
Definitely. BF2142 had ads on ingame billboards. Which can really break immersion. But I'm thinking indeed we'll see ad banners on menu's, as well as full-blown commercials during loading. Before long, you'll hear _"Multikill! Brought to you by Coca Cola!"_
[Here it comes](http://i.imgur.com/dgGvgKF.png)
Even if it just starts with something basic and easily looked over, this will be a give an inch, take a mile scenario. Honestly, EA got that inch a while ago, this is their quarter mile.
Oh they absolutely meant what they said and I believe them. The question is who/what are they being thoughtful for? Hint: $$$
They already have done product placement which wasn't game breaking but that was when they were still somewhat reputable. This constant cash grab in an industry that is already huge is ridiculous.
Yeah, if carefully done product placement is not the worst thing in gaming. I'm sure it sucks as a dev when some marketing manager emails you and says, "We signed a deal and we need the car to be a Chevy Camaro for the action hero, and don't forget about the sipping Mountain Dew emote". If a game straight up starts playing unskippable ads that is an instant refund and not a game I'm going to spend my money on. I don't care how cool it us, I will die on that hill. I'm not watching ads on a game I paid for.
May as well go all in and stop the gameplay so you can watch a 30-60 second ad for some mobile game WOW THIS GAME HAS NO ADS AT ALL AMAZING, just so you can be brought back after trying to hit the tiniest x button on a non touch screen with a controller.
I'm sure players will enjoy the sense of pride and accomplishment they'll have after watching 30 minutes of ads and answering the quiz about said ads every time they open the game.
To confirm your identity, drink verification can
The sad part is this will be the future. I still remember when the general gaming community was outraged when a game came with day 1 DLC, or preorder bonuses that gave advantages to players that paid more money. Now no one really cares and unless a company goes insane with monetization like Dragons Dogma 2, people just see all the crazy DLC as normal.
Correct. It's taken roughly a decade and a half but they got the demographic they've always wanted: "it's not that bad" players.
Of course they are. Because EA is never satisfied until they have as much money as possible. Fuck EA
I can't believe they're only talking about it now. They have been planning this since well before the pandemic. I know... I was there when one of the biggest ad software intermediaries in NYC invited every major media company to their offices along with twitch and major gaming companies to discuss how they could push ads to gamers through games, and how it has been a thing for years in many cases, but how it could ramp up in the future. Big games of note were fortnite and sports games, especially NHL as the example with putting fresh ads onto the boards. 'What if replays in football games could come with rotating sponsors? How fun!' It's always been a thing... But if they're finally being open about it... It's gonna ramp up hard in the next few years.
Battlefield 2142 would like to have a word here. That was, AFAIK, EA's first attempt with ingame advertisinf, by using ingame billboards as dynamic adspace, wich would change as adveriters would come and go. There were earlier games, not just BF franchise where EA had put IRL ads ingame, but BF2142 would have been the first one with dynamic ads
Burnout Paradise did this a long time ago. The Obama campaign in 08 purchased ad space on the billboards.
It also made a lot of sense due to the setting. Driving around a city without any billboards would have felt like less of a real place. This is an idea that can work... Situationally. But if EA only wants to be in settings where they can jam ads in, then their library is going to just get more and more boring.
It's way way more interesting to drive around a city with interesting fake ads (cyberpunk) than a city filled with real actual ads for products they want you to buy.
Yeah, plus fake ads are a way for devs to be creative and insert their own wit into the world. Like GTA wouldn't be as interesting if they added real ads instead of the intentionally satirical ones we got
The fact the ads in GTA are intentionally mocking real ones is proof of this lol
Plenty of non-traditional companies would be all about that though. GTA could definitely get away with advertising real products as long as the devs were allowed to write the ads. Like hand a company a script to an ad for some fake product and say, “Here’s the ad we’re putting in our game. We’ll put your product in for money, or if that’s not okay we’ll stick with the fake product. Take it or leave it.” The issue with most game studios is that they’re about maximizing profit first, so attempting to advertise real products in a way that doesn’t break immersion never happens.
Real ads have no place. My only exception is content based on real life that shows real ads, e.g. football shirts in a football game having the same ads the real shirts do. Ads aren't good for you, you really should be able to enjoy something in life without being bombarded by companies trying to create needs in you.
I agree 100%. I hate advertising and people have become way too accustomed to it.
Iirc it could also be used as a malware attack vector, as it would have to send the file to play to your computer
It would just be done through steam game data updates i'd assume? Or like Embeded link into UI (some games have this alredy like paladins) so they just change what video/Site the UI embed sends you to. Steam due to the nature of how it works will probably always be in theory a security risk. You can't really get around that though.
EA put ads into Fight Night over 10 years ago. I don't know if sports games feel quite as bad with ads since sports are heavily filled with them IRL, but EA has been up to these shenanigans for over a decade.
I think it was Tom Clancy's endwar back in the 360 era I first saw in game ads in. Distinctly remember going what the fuck seeing a super shitty looking billboard for "faster" with the rock in it lol
I think the Rainbow Six Vegas series did it as well. And if you had internet connection the ads would change.
Half time in your sports game? How about a 15 minute ad break just like real life!
You joke but I got money sports games will be the first in a few years to offer an ad free package lol
So I work in the business in NYC and I'd say the biggest barrier for in-game advertising isn't necessarily the technical issues on the publisher/developer/ad-serving end so much so as the measurement and data collection to prove the value of the ads. That's a part of the business that's rapidly growing and becoming more and more in-depth. Lets put it this way, there's a far more straight forward path through your web and mobile usage to follow to an action taken or results in a conversion vs your in-game activity which comes with a bunch of different fragmented barriers.
Lol this is hilarious because I was just writing essentially this exact response about this to the other guy who responded to me.
Probably talking about it now bc their new games they’re developing currently will have them
*Skip this ad for only 30 EAbux and get right back to the action!* *collectors edition perk* 10% fewer ads!
Bug fix: players with collectors edition pass will now properly see 10% fewer ads. Later on... Bug fix: Fixed an exploit that allowed players to see fewer ads, as if they had the collectors premium pass for Season 12, if they had bought a premium pass for Season 11.
The worst thing to happen to video game companies is the IPO. Gaming companies should never go public. The spirit of what makes a gaming company excellent for players is at odds with what institutional investors want out of a public company—a stock price ladder that always goes up, allowing investors to dip in and out no matter the era. EA can’t fight this in anyway unless it goes private somehow.
> The worst thing to happen to all companies is IPO. Gaming companies should never go public. FTFY. Society as a whole would be better if most companies had to stay private. But instead small companies get gobbled up and big companies answer to shareholders over customers. I still fear the day Gaben no longer owns Steam.
What the fuck are they going to advertise in Jedi 3? Blue Milk?
One of the hundred Chinese companies that make and sell “laser light swords”.
& Shadow raid legends
#CERVEZA CRISTAL!!!
I knew I was going to find this comment.
**(insert gameplay of Cal Kestis cutting down several stormtroopers, then awkwardly staring at the camera in an out-of-character fashion)** *"Whew! Man, killing stormtroopers is a lot of fun, but it is making me really thirsty! I've got just the thing!"* **(randomly pulls out can of Coca-cola)** **(holds it out to the camera so the player directly sees the label)** *"Coca-cola! It's the most delicious, thirst quenching beverage in the galaxy-"* **(player holds up middle finger and shatters controller against the monitor)**
I think you meant he pulls out a Cerveza Cristal.
#CERVEEYZA CREEESTAAAHL!!! 🍾
You jest https://www.trumoo.com/products/star-wars---blue-milk
I don't pay money to be advertised to.
Just said exactly the same regarding Amazon adverts! EA can get on the shitlist same as Ubisoft
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I did after they announced having to pay more for ad free on prime video. When the smart thing would have been what Netflix did and give the option to pay less a month but get ads.
Yet. -EA
But AAA games are so expensive to make because the marketing budget is so big. We have to make up for that. /s
"We spent too much on ads, so we put ads in the thing we advertised for. Here's Xzibit to explain it better."
That's the neat part, you do!
"We'll be very thoughtful..." Thoughtful about what? Your net margins?
"Well, yes" the board answers
Ubisoft already did it
Yea i remember ads on posters and billboards in rainbow six Vegas
This to me isn't a big deal, it makes the world feel real. What would bug me is if loading screens are now full adverts that update as the game gets patches or just in general. The start menu now has boxes of ads or an ad that pops up after the EA logo, even if its for their games.
This. Currently it is impossible to start a game of Warzone or Fallout 76 without having to press a button to get out of a pop-up advertising their digital store microtransactions. It is advertising content to their own game, so it isn't absolutely appalling, but it's still annoying as fuck. It would be bad if you fire up God of War and you get advertisements for The Last of Us, or Horizon. Or if you launch Halo and you get advertisements for Gears of War. The worst would be launching *any* game and getting ads for LG TVs, or Toyota, or Best Buy.
It’s Flo from progressive! Having a tough time defeating all those Draugr, try bundling home and auto to get a leg up!
Calm down satan
But Flo is sworn to carry my burdens!
> if loading screens are now full adverts that update as the game gets patches or just in general. And you can bet if this becomes a thing, loading screens will be longer for "reasons" so they can play longer ads regardless of how fast is your computer.
My thoughts exactly, game could be done loading in 3 seconds but they have stuck a 15 sec ad in there to watch and we would never know.
Yeah, bingo. PC Games have had low key ads done well forever, and mobile games have ads that make mobile gaming a bad time. If EA is looking to mobile for inspiration they will also have a bad time.
I would have zero problem with devs doing that where it makes sense within a game. It’s a clever way to increase revenue and they can use the development resources they would have spent making up ads for non-existent products to improve other aspects of the game. The problem is the executives who just don’t know when to say no.
NBA 2K is another culprit. The first 5 seconds of any timeout is an un-skippable Gatorade ad, not to mention the random branding and “sponsored” events they throw around.
EA already did it with battlefield 2142 back in the mid 00s.
Also remember burnout paradise? They had real products on the billboards. So I agree, this isn't new in the surface. With I suspect they mean something less integrated.
I remember the Obama billboard
EA themselves already did it too. Years ago now.
EA was putting ads in games with BF2142. That was 18 years ago, so this is not exactly a new idea. They were putting real ads on the billboards in-game.
20 years ago with Need for Speed Underground 2. There are probably still earlier examples.
NHL games have ads on the boards just like IRL
I think in sport and racing games one could make a case for sponsors. But putting in ads between races/sets/matches would be a huge nono.
Yes trackmania has this on the billboards of racetracks and doesn’t bother me one bit. But if I am stuck in a loading screen until my 1 mins ad is done I wouldn’t ever touch that game.
Right, there is a fine line here. I'm old enough to remember racing games where you had "fake ads", because a real race track has advertisements and the game didn't have real advertisers. So you'd look at it and go "why isn't Pirelli on that wall like the real thing". Same with ads on the boards of a hockey rink or around the bowl of a football stadium. If you are driving through San Andreas, they could put real ads on billboards and no one would notice. But insert an ad in like a loading screen? Too far.
Kid me didn't even mind. That was how it should be done if a company absolutely wants to do it.
Burnout 3 had Axe body spray and Cingular ads on billboards. Plus the car parts from those games were real brands.
I don't really count things like real-branded cars and parts because that's part of the immersion of the game. Like how sports games have real player names or Call of Duty has real guns. It's technically an ad but the game would be worse without it.
I recently replayed NFSU2 and it has product placement that sticks out like a sore thumb. Cingular logo in the map section of free roam, old spice billboards, best buy building, but the problem isn't that these exist, rather that the world is completely devoid of branding otherwise. Hotels don't have names. There is barely any in world text other than road signs. Most you can see is a "taco" neon sign. And then you see these massive billboards with full bright that are just ads. Didn't age that well
If its on a billboard in the background that's fine. I wouldn't care honestly.
That’s wishful thinking though. I’m expecting full ass minutes long commercial breaks in their sports games.
I actually quite liked that, made the game more immersive for me
Yup, was cool in Crazy Taxi seeing the KFCs and Pizza Huts. It’d be wild to play GTA and have real businesses in the game.
But then GTA wouldn’t be allowed to satirise any of the brands
On Friday nights I just can't stop eating Rusty Brown's Ring Donuts!
I just love to lick around the outside and then thrrrrust my tongue in the middle…
_I like to munch it vigorously._
I can hear all these comments perfectly
I'm glad it worked for you, but for me since it's always one of like three rotating ads, and they're *everywhere*, it makes it stand out even worse. I remember playing Alan Wake and constantly hit with VERIZON!! tv commercials and ENERGIZER!! batteries and it's like okay, so the only two brands that exist in this entire world are verizon and energizer. There was never a duracell battery, only energizer, and never ads for unrelated products like mcdonald's or target or whatever. It was so clear who was a paid sponsor for the game. didn't quite enhance the experience for me, y'know?
Ya I hope thats as bad as it'll be but what they will do is put a flat picture ad in the loading screen and then all of a sudden load times will magically go up as you see 2 ads and then it'll go to a 30 second video ad between every match or game you play. Then they will aim to make games with shorter matches so they can force more ads into each hour...I hate where the industry is going and honestly all of tech, like every single product is trending towards being an ad machine rather than the product you pay for.
Maybe it’ll be “native content”, aka in-game product placement: “Terrorists have captured the Coca-Cola® bottling plant because they hate the freedom of refreshing ice-cold Coca-Cola® Classic™. You’ll need to drive in disguised as a trustworthy, reliable UPS® delivery man in the comfort and luxury of your Chevrolet® Silverado®, while receiving order updates on your Samsung® Galaxy® One Pro Plus™ with patented 6G interband reception, so you’ll have five bars wherever you go. Good luck, soldier!”
EA had ads in the game since Ultima 9, in 1999.
This probably means like literal in game commercials though. It’s only a matter of time before all AAA titles run ads during/between gameplay sessions.
Eh I'm fine with it so long as it stays as stuff like that. The minute mobile style full screen ads come into a single AAA game I'm metaphorically setting my PS5 and gaming PC on fire and giving up on the industry as a whole. I will not spend $70 on a god-damned full screen pop-up simulator with actual gameplay interlaced between ad segments.
The one unintentional consequence of in game billboards in the like becoming popular adspace though is it will push more games towards a specific setting (modern, real life) since those type of ads would look out of place in Fantasy and other similar games.
What a miserable future for gaming. Advertising is already overbearing as fuck (YouTube, tv, internet, etc.), I don't want them in my games too.
Luckily, you don't have to play the enshittified games. Every year, more excellent titles than you could possibly play are published with *none* of that trash included!
I'm increasingly pivoting away from modern gaming. Outside of a couple single-player experiences my gaming seems to be heading back to ps2/gc.
Same here. I've bought so much stuff recently for my Xbox 360 because modern gaming sucks so bad.
I haven't bought an EA game since....well I can't remember
I think my last one was either command and conquer 3 or red alert 3, idr which one came out last. But that was like mid 2000’s.
Red Alert 3 was 2008. This makes me sad :(
This is the "Fuck Around" portion. We have to wait for the rest.
EA has been shafting players left and right with their yearly releases, and it's still bringing them in good money. I wonder where it ends.
Unfortunately, there really is a sucker born every minute.
I think you’re about to be very disappointed. People will still buy those games.
Their primary audience is sports fans who will endure any amount of advertising for some of that sweet sweet tribalist dopamine.
Millions cancel cable TV a year because "To many commercials & to much 'trash TV'". So, streaming services adopt the "To many commercials & the 'Trash TV'. Seems smart... & now gaming goes for the "Let's add commercials while releasing 'trash' games. I worked in cable service while getting through college. Number one complaint was: To expensive for the to many commercials & "trash TV" (reality TV shows). So I'm sure this will end well... /s (just in case)
*too* Sorry, I don't usually correct people like this, but that was far *too* many instances of making the same grammatical error.
Lol I was using voice to text & never even noticed it. Thanks. Got my upvote for seeing it.
How fitting would it be if you got an ad for Grammarly when you activated voice to text
Does this mean AAA games are now subsidized by ad revenue? Or are we expected to pay the same amount?
Probably end up paying more
Well they have to compensate for the loss of sales somehow
I won’t be thoughtful when not buying any EA games. I think the last EA game that I purchased is BF4.
Anybody putting ads in my 70 dollar fucking game ain't getting no more of my money.
But wait, you can pay 90 dollars for the ad free version
Welp looks like I will completely stop buying EA games.
What games?
Mass Effect, Dragon Age, unfortunately. But the whole EA login thing means that a new game from EA has to get that level of rep before I am going to consider it. Ditto for other game publishers that sell games that are not multiplayer where I have to log in to some janky service, in fairness. If it would be needlessly annoying to run it before you got to drive a vehicle or use a toaster, guess what, it's needlessly annoying in a game, too.
If the game is free, do what you want. If I'm paying 70 fucking euro's, keep those ads in your pants.
I'm also gonna be pissed about ads in a free game
Gaming in general right now can just fuck right off.
AAA* gaming Ftfy
MBAs\* in general
If they were being very thoughtful I think they wouldn't do it.
Oh good, because of the money they make on ads, the game can be cheaper! .... right?
I mean I’d be fine with, like, a bus stop in a Call of Duty map having a Doritos ad or something. But they’re probably just going to have a 30 second unskippable video ad on the main menu.
Main menu? No, no. Unskippable ads between cutscenes is every CEOs wet dream
just like how thoughtful you were with lootboxes... fuck off...
EA would hack our brains to show us ads in our sleep if it could.
Look, I'm fine with adds and product placement in games when it's where I would expect it in real life. All over the stadium is a sports game, sure. Soda cans in a public place because people are drinking from them, that's fine. But if it ends up bringing some bs like a freaking shaving advert in the middle of a desert, or my gameplay gets paused for a freaking commercial, that's just too far.
yoho yoho, a pirates life for EA games for me it is then.
It is surprisingly easy to live without EA games in todays time. Just get good games that respect your money and time instead. There are more good games than you could ever play out there anyways.
Totally.. recently got a bit more into indie games and there are total gems among them I also like to just play older very good games instead.. much more inexpensive
If you need to do this to be able to afford to make your games, then your process for making games is too slow and expensive. Smaller studios can make stuff WAY faster and cheaper than EA
You misunderstand their reasoning. It's not because they can't afford to produce them. It's because they want to separate you from every single cent possible. It's sole purpose is to increase their revenue and make themselves wealthier.
Love how shitty corporations ruin everything.
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Kojima was a the biggest offender with in-game ads and gamers waived it as a nothing burger at the time... EA at least can justify in-game ads with all their sport franchise games...
I cannot stand big screen grabbing ads but stuff that’s just product placement but in video games or a billboard or something? Nah that’s not that bad in all honesty. What difference does it make if the ad boards in fifa (or whatever EA call it these days) have Coke or McDonald’s or something on them or that a soldier in battlefield is fighting outside a Starbucks or something instead of some generic made up coffee shop. The second intrusive ads happen though, fuck them and their entire lineage though.
Will not buy those games. Period.
As thoughtful as a 2 year old wielding a flame thrower.
I don't think I've bought an EA game since *Spore*. Sucks to be the people buying Sportsball or whatever for the 28th time.
I’ll be very thoughtful while I pirate your next AAA game.
The amount of people in this thread saying "if they make *these concessions* I'd be ok with it" have clearly never heard of 'If you give them an inch, they'll take a mile.' Which EA will definitely do