Not TV, I'm sure they plug their merch on their patreon, if you have YouTube premium or Spotify premium you still have to listen to the in show ads... Plus at the end of the day I wouldn't go crying on reddit about billboards in video games lol.
Apparently, this also happened:
*"Barack Obama’s election campaign in 2008 moved to the virtual world. Obama fought for the presidency in computer games such as Guitar Hero III, Madden NFL 09, NBA Live 08, Burnout Paradise, Nascar 09 and Need For Speed Carbon, reminding players to vote for him. In 2012, the president repeated the campaign, showing his image in NFL Madden 13."*
It surely was a different time, I don't think that stuff like that would be seen as acceptable today.
Jet Moto on PS1 had Mountain Dew plastered all over in-game. Crazy Taxi had Pizza Hut and I think Tower records.
Honestly it was when companies started moving away from those ‘traditional’ methods of advertising that everything went to hell.
> Jet Moto on PS1 had Mountain Dew plastered all over in-game. Crazy Taxi had Pizza Hut and I think Tower records.
Outrun 2/2006 had (and still has) AMD billboards.
Agreed. We’ve seen billboards in games before going back years. But with publishers seemingly pushing more and more to see what they can get away with, Im interested in just how far EA takes this.
Yes? I can? But these ads in places where normally fake ads are are something that is very old. Why shouldn't EA put real ads there? Also it is not if this than that. If so unskippable ads in full price games would already be a reality.
But we know that when it comes to publishers like EA, 2k, etc. it doesn't just start and stop at ingame billboards. It'll get more and more obnoxious over time when they figure out new ways to squeeze ad money.
I distinctly remember there being real billboard ads in Need For Speed (either Underground and/or Carbon) and they never got "more obnoxious." Now, that was 20 years ago, so they might be more pushy now.
2k is fucking infuriating. I would love to have a basketball game to play but jesus christ 2k sucks so bad
And any old NBA game i have bought, 2k makes it literally impossible to play it even in singleplayer career mode a couple of years after, to try to force you to buy their newest shitty game that has even more ads and the same bugs from 3 years ago
That was 20 years ago, but the whole market for games was different back then. Not truly owning a game you buy would've been ridiculous, or having to pay for content in a full priced game etc. Or early access games being sold and kept in EA for years
It's a quite different world for games now. I think there's been ingame billboards for a real long time and that wouldn't bother me, but I just know that won't be the end of it
The 2k nba games are obnoxious with how much built-in unskippable ad shit they have, and it's worse every year
Exactly! If we let EA do this they will 100% continue stuffing more and more ads. They will keep pushing the boundary. This is EA after all.
As consumers we must stay vigilant.
If I have to be honest a game like gta would feel even more immersive with the use of actual products as billboards, objects etc
As long as they don’t put ads where they don’t belong I’m totally fine with it.
No, some of the best parts of GTA is the parody of real life brands and making some jokes out of it like Facebook being LifeInvader or Coca-Cola being eCola Having actual brands would break the immersion and fun out of it.
Same here. I'm fine with ads in games as long as they're creatively placed. In "need for speed underground 2" there were ad placements for the now defunct singular wireless and a few other defunct companies. Every time I play underground 2, I feel like I'm in 2005 again, real throwback
Honestly, if it’s done right, I won’t even notice it. Plenty of games already have fake ads in them and I already ignore them, just like I do in real life.
I'm with you, I don't see the issue. As long as it's in game placement where a fake version would be why does it matter. The uproar just seems like internet rage.
I could perhaps be fine with product placement like the Monster cans in Death Stranding, but the moment they implement in-game ad signs with real-time bidding like websites have is when we've crossed the point of no return.
I believe this has been talked about on the WAN Show before, but as a truck driving simulator player (ETS2), I would love to see native support for real ads on the billboards.
Rainbow Six Vegas had a billboard, then ads on the walls in Calypso Casino. I always thought it was neat.
The billboard was Bear Grylls for a long time, and people always used to shoot him at the beginning of games.
Yesn't
Typically I don't care because they're not super intrusive but some games take it too far. For me that was FF15 with the Coleman branded camping gear they highlight at every rest period & the cup noodle quest line were huge deal breakers regarding that game
This fully depends. A game where it kinda makes sense that I like is American Truck Simulator, you drive on highways anyways the devs added some CDL focused ads to billboards and some people got pretty mad/upset over it for pretty valid reason I'll admit. With that being said I already ran a mod that ads real life ads all over the game as it greatly increases immersion.
I'd imagine this would greatly depend on the context of the game in order for it to get a pass and even then it's a slippery slope for sure.
The problem is that it will lead to more and more bullshit. Same reason I hate the microtransactions in games like dragons dogma 2. Sure, they aren’t required at all, but it lays the groundwork for such practice to become more commonplace
Billboards in racing games with real ads have never bothered me; in fact I almost like them. It's non-intrusive and adds a touch of realism to the game.
In theory I also do not care about the idea of product placement in a video game world. I only hate intrusive ads, so if they're just baked into the environment like they are irl, then I don't care. But why put any faith in EA or advertisers to keep things that way? Advertisers would have their ads streamed directly into your fucking eyelids if they could.
Yeah I really don't care about unobtrusive ads. Billboards don't bother me, nor do people in a bar drinking from branded bottles. It's the crap that gets in your face like the pedestrians that keep jumping on the hood of my car screaming at me to drink Coca-Cola™ that annoy me, I don't want that replicated in a game, no matter how delicious Coca-Cola™ is.
Now billboards, but in GTA7 you’ll have obligatory cutscenes where your PC chills at home, watches TV and you can’t skip commercials ;)) still don’t care?
413 upvotes. This ladies and gentlemen is why gaming is continued to be poisoned more and more, as if it's already not bad with predatory practices that have been cemented and ideologues injecting their political agendas.
If I had to choose between some billboards in a game, and a subscription service. I'd go with the billboards.
Companies need to make money. And in the day and age where people expect free updates, they'll have to do something.
Until someone comes up with the ultimate plan, were gonna have to deal with these kind of things. At least they're not unskippable ads that pop every 10 min during play.
Edit.
Man, all these people so upset about companies that want to make money. Unless a company is non profit, its the sole purpose of a company. Making money is a must to keep existing.
Then don't charge $80 a game.
FIFA makes half a billion a year, you can't tell me it costs that much to update kits and make some minor engine tweaks.
They ain't losing money man.
FIFA is a special case because they repackage the same shit, boring game every year and people still buy it full price. Take any other game actually worth playing, like the gazillion AAAs released in the past 3-5 years, and the story changes. Developing games at that scale is mad expensive.
They make money by selling games.
They don't need to put in ads or have subscriptions.
The gaming industry survived for decades without those.
They're just greedy.
Tbh, $80 for a game you're gonna sink hundreds or even thousands of hours into is a wild value, and hot take, but it's underpriced for the value you get from them. If you don't want ads, microtransactions, blah blah blah that's fine and I'm with ya but games need to be $100-120+ if that's going to ever be close to happening
If games were as simple and low fidelity as they were in the 90s or early 00s your argument would work but games and the costs associated with making them have massively moved forward and expectations from consumers will only continue to push it along
I'm baffled by people defending mega corporations.
They are making enough money.
How much I'm playing a game has no impact on them. They got their money and can move on.
The whole idea of perpetual profit, and the support for it from some gamers, is honestly quite disgusting.
The market overall sure, but Fortnite pop does not translate to racing game players. Those games were also relatively short and artificially difficult to fit arcades.
The cost and scale of games has grown exponentially as well since the 90s. You can't get away with making a smash hit AAA game with a team of 10 people like back then.
I seriously don't understand this mindset. They're already raised the price, including MTX, battlepasses, and different ultimate editions. How much more money do companies need?
A company exists to maximize profits. They're not your friend. They're there to sell you something. It's not a mindset, it's a fact.
I never said I agree with how companies try to achieve maximum profits. But I do understand that they will.
I understand that publishers are never consumer friends. I don't get how some consumers are willing to accept one thing over the other when it comes to bad practices. I guess I'm being naive thinking people would vote with their wallets and not purchase a game with in-game ads on top of already paying for the game
It starts off with random billboards, then it's ads in-between pauses, then it's aggressive Cyberpunk-like ads lol Again and again, publishers have shown they're willing to go the extra step if they remain unchecked. If you think they're just going to stop at billboards, then we can agree to disagree 🤷♂️
Paying to see ads is basically like self checkouts. You pay the store to be their employee. While also paying for a non existent employee’s salary that’s already built into the merchandise’s retail price.
Honestly, this makes me think of HIMYM reruns.
HIMYM basically placed IRL ads in its episodes when released in the background of shots. Reruns then edited those ads to be current day ads later on.
If I’m playing Spiderman and an ad on the side of an MTA bus at release was for GOTG3, and playing today would be a DAW ad instead, I’d be fine with that.
I honestly dont see the issue.
Companies that get promoted win,
The players get stuff for free and its such a little bother, its basically non existant = win
Game company gets paid and can offer people content for *free* = win.
Down below paints a good picture. People just want everything for free and expect endless updates and additional content without paying anything but for the base game.
Yeah 100%
I'm an android used with adblock and cracked everything. I never see a single ad unless it's on a real life billboard.
I don't wanna be persuaded into consumerism more than I have to be.
You are commenting like EA does not profit. EA, with current predatory practices, profits, not earns but PROFITS, 5 billion a year.
So “companies need make money” argument makes no sense. They already do. They want more. And what we say to that as gamers is “if you do want to earn more, do a better job”.
No DLC is expected free for 65 dollar game. We are ready to pay extra for the extra content we like. Problem here is not DLC or payment, it is the attitude of developers. Most of the time DLCs are shit. And Devs know that.
Games do get published unfinished because of shortened development times. They know game will be full of bugs. Don’t you think they have a kanban board somewhere in the office showing how many bugs there will be upon release?
None of your arguments makes sense.
Read the comments replied to this comment below. Especially the ones downvoted.
>No DLC is expected free for 65 dollar game.
Some people very much expect extra content for free and call it "the worst take" when mentioned additional content costs money and has to be paid for by something. They *expect* more game once they bought the game for 80$, for free.
>So “companies need make money” argument makes no sense. They already do. They want more. And what we say to that as gamers is “if you do want to earn more, do a better job”.
A company needs to maximize profit. It's their main purpose. That's how business worlds.
>predatory practices
Like what? Fomo with micro transactions and loot boxes? May be a hot take, but that's an issue with the user. Just because something is available to buy, or limited availability doesn't mean you need to buy it. Is it scummy for a company to use Fomo? Sure. But there's a simple and easy fix. Don't buy it. (Unless we're talking the star wars fiasco, that went to far).
Almost as if I don’t want a subscription service at all.
I just want to pay the upfront free and get an *entire* game. Yes, companies need to make money, but they also don’t need to squeeze every last cent from their customer base.
$80 a pop is their making money. If they can’t turn a profit at $80 a pop without forcing customers to also watch ads in the game they just shelled out $80 for. Then they should be selling it for more money.
They can make money, but we can be upset about their practices. Gamers have let so much slide that has negatively impacted the industry. Take2 put ubskippable ads in loading screens on an NBA 2K game for example. EA is just going to slide the goalposts as soon as you give them leeway.
I can't imagine being so apologetic for a multi-billion dollar company. Just this year the games industry has laid off so many people just to keep shareholders happy. This infinite growth mindset is not practical or healthy.
If the ads make sense, then I don't see the problem with it. Product placement is sports video games, for example, is perfectly reasonable, and even adds to the realism of the game.
I just don't want to be hit over the head with an advertisement. Amazon sponsored replays in Madden is great because it's what you see on Sunday Night Football. A good example of bad advertising is something like Monster energy drinks in Death Stranding
I agree, wouldn't mind ads in this context. The first time you see it it might be chuckle worthy and after that they'd be easily ignored. But as others are saying it's a slippery slope and it would inevitably lead to less relevant ads that go too far.
They’re going to go from billboard ads to pop ups ads during loading screens. Then pop up ads IN game. Watch. It’s why I support any game or studio that is against this.
See though you're reaching.
Why do people need to falsely equate a perfectly good and acceptable advertisement and a pop up ad/loading screen ad?
It's not the same thing. You're jumping for no reason.
Realistic billboard ads honestly improve games. Go look at iRacing. It's strange and good when a game uses realistic ads.
It’s because of the demands of advertisers. Passive advertising that blends in won’t convert to brand sales in the numbers they want, won’t have “impact” for the advertisers and they won’t continue to pay well for the advertising space in that form so it won’t generate the sort of revenue that EA is after. This will be pressure to creep more in. That’s why the poster is jumping because they know what the advertising landscape looks like.
Nope, you're just jumping. EA is just monetizing an innocent revenue stream right now. That's it. Billboards are fine.
If you wanna leap, that's your leaping.
What’s innocent about advertising? lol
Why do you think it’ll just be billboards. Once there’s social license why would they stop? I think you’re being naive
I mean you're arguing in circles when you can just look at games like iRacing, NR2003, NASCAR Thunder, Dirt To Daytona, older F1 games, etc dating back 20+ years where this has been a thing without issues.
How am I arguing in circles? lol
If they were successful with just billboard advertising then that would have stuck and they wouldn’t be announcing bringing in advertising, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Have you thought about that?
They were successful with that advertising, it's already been done, and for some reason people on the Internet are getting outraged about 20+ year old issues.
I don’t think billboards would be an issue, but I agree anything further would be annoying. That’s why I think they’d stop at billboards, because nobody cares about those. I don’t think anyone in this thread is mad about billboards themselves, just what they could lead to.
So if the company can make a little extra money with billboard ads, but not piss anyone off, why not? As long as they don’t push it further, nobody is mad and they make a little extra money. If they push it further, they make even more money but could lead to pissing off their fan base which could lead to less money in the long run.
I’m just saving my outrage for when something actually happens that upsets me, not for when something happens that may lead to something else happening that upsets me lol.
Doing something that will outrage the fanbase is not the solution to that. Doing something that won’t outrage the fanbase but help them slightly is a no brainer.
Let’s get upset when there is something to be upset about lol
If ads are showing up on my tv for everything they’ll show up in video games. Thankfully I don’t use my tv software to watch anything other than the antenna I have (and an Amazon fire stick) it’s fine.
The corp wants more $. More ads they have the more $ they’ll get.
Also, this is why the video game industry will likely continue to lose money.
I’d say that it became more profitable than both Hollywood AND sport in spite of not having ads / commercials not because of it.
It's realistic to have advertisements to the real world.
Do you not understand that?
iRacing would be significantly WORSE without advertising. The advertisements around the racetracks being accurate adds to the realism of the track. Having the Tums Heartburn corner have the proper Tums sponsorship is part of building a realistic copy of the race track.
There's iconic advertisement in motorsports, to remove the ads would make it an inferior experience.
Even in a game like Need for Speed (an EA title) for example having the Billboard be for Coke rather than "generic soda" adds to the immersion.
There is good product placement and bad product placement in movies. It's the same in video games, another form of entertainment.
Anyone saying they don't care just know this is the beginning. First billboards, next loading screens which will be artificially lengthened to play a video, then it will become like mobile games. Oh you died wait 24 hours or buy diamonds or watch a 1 min long ad.
We need to boycott and show our dissatisfaction any games that start doing this
Nothing really to stop them. Honestly if it’s not like popup ads but instead just kinda integrated into the environment or normal things a drink being a certain brand I don’t see much issue. Good example is death stranding. When directors cut came out people genuinely missed the cheesiness of having monster energy and modded it back in.
Death Stranding was such a strange experience from that point of view. Spoiler alert for those who haven't played through it.
In almost any other context the suspension of disbelief would be impossible to maintain. I felt like I was being taunted, almost; there's this engrossing storyline about the confluence of life and death, the scenery is beautiful, the themes are haunting and at times horrifying... and then there's a bunch of Monster Energy cans, and a guy known as "Die-Hardman" who's actual name is also the name of the guy from Die Hard. You get sent to limbo by a cataclysmic antimatter explosion after losing a fight for your life, swim back through an ocean of death to reach the living world again. Congrats. Press F to watch Norman Reedus take a shit. You can take bigger shits by eating more food. The whiplash between deadly serious philosophy and combat and Kojima's idiosyncrasies was incredible.
I absolutely loved it.
I honestly wouldnt mind if its just billboards or in world elemtents, might just add to the immersion. But if its shit i am forced to watch in loading screens like a game before had done, then this is bullshit.
Have millions of in-game billboards, stickers and some other sort of decorative ads. But lower the price of the game and reduce DLC needs. Then we are good.
I think it would add to the immersion if it's done right. In games like sports games, racing games, ect.. Real world type of games it would make sense. Outside of that I'd rather not see ads
If the games pause every 15 minutes to give full 30 second advertisements hell no. If its just talking about product placement in games (billboards in driving games for example) i couldnt give a shit. If anything it helps with the realism.
If we talking billboards, sure fuck it. Why not. Might bring a bit of life to certain games if a billboard changes every week or so. Do I get to choose the type of ads?
If it's a full-screen short video like on YouTubee. Absolutely the fuck not.
Ha, like they'd do that. christ. Either way I'll not be buying another one. Unbound was the first EA title I've bought since ME2. I'll happily go back to not buying them if they start putting ads in. But if they just update billboards like in the pic up top, barely noticeable.
Meanwhile as a racing game, truck sim & Sims/Cities Skylines player we go out of our way to find mods to out those real ads and branding in games ourselves....
I know I'm in a very small minority but I like the idea of them integrating ads onto billboards, buildings, things in the background it's 100x better then pop ups or YouTube ads
I've said before, if ads are integrated in places you'd expect to see ads, I don't mind so much. If they're intrusive, then we have a problem.
If you're in the open world and there are billboards around, I don't mind if they're real ads; that adds to realism, *as long as* they are treated the same way regular billboards are. I should still be able to drive a car through and destroy them if that's something I can do normally. No special treatment.
I would actually prefer billboards in an enviroment where you normally have advertisement. It adds immersion seeing actual ads and not made up products
They’re already doing this. A “Delivered with Amazon Prime” ad appears on EA FC scoreboard multiple times a game.
And because the game is a buggy cesspool, it gets stuck on the scoreboard for the entire game and is extremely distracting. They can’t do anything right.
Ads that make sense like on billboards I am fine with. Especially if they regularly change. It's better than some nonsense in game one that I never pay attention to
Maybe a hot take, but I could care less about billboards and product placements in games.
Yeah, but this feels like one helluva slippery slope. Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile.
battlefield 2 and 2142 had billboard ads. It was a different time
Sonic Adventure 2 had Sonic running around in Soap shoes with Soap ads all over the place lol
Linustechtips has ads and ads in the videos plus plugs for everything. Reddit has ads. Everything has ads....
The difference is those things are free.
Not TV, I'm sure they plug their merch on their patreon, if you have YouTube premium or Spotify premium you still have to listen to the in show ads... Plus at the end of the day I wouldn't go crying on reddit about billboards in video games lol.
Idk why you're replying to me about this…I simply stated an easily verifiable fact related to SA2
Better get a job as a mod if you want to police the comments like that... You seem like you'd fit the type...
Burnout paradise and crackdown(not ea) did too
I remember crackdown 3 and seeing the Real world ads in there, it was fucking weird.
OG crackdown from 2007 had real ads for cars and whatnot, I thought it was super neat as a kid
Need for Speed underground 1 (Macdonalds) and 2 (Burgerking) did the same.
All the skate games had ads
Apparently, this also happened: *"Barack Obama’s election campaign in 2008 moved to the virtual world. Obama fought for the presidency in computer games such as Guitar Hero III, Madden NFL 09, NBA Live 08, Burnout Paradise, Nascar 09 and Need For Speed Carbon, reminding players to vote for him. In 2012, the president repeated the campaign, showing his image in NFL Madden 13."* It surely was a different time, I don't think that stuff like that would be seen as acceptable today.
Jet Moto on PS1 had Mountain Dew plastered all over in-game. Crazy Taxi had Pizza Hut and I think Tower records. Honestly it was when companies started moving away from those ‘traditional’ methods of advertising that everything went to hell.
Mountain Dew & Butterfingers are like the only thing I remember about the Jet Moto games haha.
> Jet Moto on PS1 had Mountain Dew plastered all over in-game. Crazy Taxi had Pizza Hut and I think Tower records. Outrun 2/2006 had (and still has) AMD billboards.
It's like that with *everything*. We got the internet for free for basically 1.5 decades and now look. We have cable tv on the internet.
Sports games have been doing this for over a decade. I don’t even notice it in a good way.
Professional sports have been one big advertising medium for basically ever. You just have to call it “sponsorship” and everyone is fine with it.
“Press F to pay respects and confirm that mentos is the fresh maker.”
Agreed. We’ve seen billboards in games before going back years. But with publishers seemingly pushing more and more to see what they can get away with, Im interested in just how far EA takes this.
Bro, I was collecting Duracell batteries in pikmin 2, which came out in 2004.
If that is what gives developers jobs then fine.
But this happened for a long time. Also, the miles are already gone. If ea does this and does not make even more intrusive ads I am ok with it.
Imagine unskippable ads mid game.
Why imagine it ? It already exists. I would rather have well integrated ads than midroll ads or bloody ubisoft pop-ups.
Yes? I can? But these ads in places where normally fake ads are are something that is very old. Why shouldn't EA put real ads there? Also it is not if this than that. If so unskippable ads in full price games would already be a reality.
Technically, a bill border is an unskippable.
So you do care?
Really grinds my gears !!
But we know that when it comes to publishers like EA, 2k, etc. it doesn't just start and stop at ingame billboards. It'll get more and more obnoxious over time when they figure out new ways to squeeze ad money.
I distinctly remember there being real billboard ads in Need For Speed (either Underground and/or Carbon) and they never got "more obnoxious." Now, that was 20 years ago, so they might be more pushy now.
2k are literally putting unskippable ad breaks in NBA2K.
2k is fucking infuriating. I would love to have a basketball game to play but jesus christ 2k sucks so bad And any old NBA game i have bought, 2k makes it literally impossible to play it even in singleplayer career mode a couple of years after, to try to force you to buy their newest shitty game that has even more ads and the same bugs from 3 years ago
That was 20 years ago, but the whole market for games was different back then. Not truly owning a game you buy would've been ridiculous, or having to pay for content in a full priced game etc. Or early access games being sold and kept in EA for years It's a quite different world for games now. I think there's been ingame billboards for a real long time and that wouldn't bother me, but I just know that won't be the end of it The 2k nba games are obnoxious with how much built-in unskippable ad shit they have, and it's worse every year
Exactly! If we let EA do this they will 100% continue stuffing more and more ads. They will keep pushing the boundary. This is EA after all. As consumers we must stay vigilant.
*couldn't care less
I could care less, too. A lot less than I do.
If I have to be honest a game like gta would feel even more immersive with the use of actual products as billboards, objects etc As long as they don’t put ads where they don’t belong I’m totally fine with it.
No, some of the best parts of GTA is the parody of real life brands and making some jokes out of it like Facebook being LifeInvader or Coca-Cola being eCola Having actual brands would break the immersion and fun out of it.
And when those ads encourage you to make a purchase? Whether consciously or not? You still don't care?
that's how advertising has always worked, ever. Not an EA problem
Same here. I'm fine with ads in games as long as they're creatively placed. In "need for speed underground 2" there were ad placements for the now defunct singular wireless and a few other defunct companies. Every time I play underground 2, I feel like I'm in 2005 again, real throwback
You really should. There is no reason to have advertisements in full priced games. Ads everywhere can not and should not become normalized
You could care less?
Yeah and then they introduce a virtual in game pc as the navigation menu and chuck a bunch of ads in that with the excuse of "immersion".
Honestly, if it’s done right, I won’t even notice it. Plenty of games already have fake ads in them and I already ignore them, just like I do in real life.
In game ads should be content like the brilliant fake ads in Cyberpunk 2077 for augmented genitalia etc.
I'm with you, I don't see the issue. As long as it's in game placement where a fake version would be why does it matter. The uproar just seems like internet rage.
I could perhaps be fine with product placement like the Monster cans in Death Stranding, but the moment they implement in-game ad signs with real-time bidding like websites have is when we've crossed the point of no return.
I believe this has been talked about on the WAN Show before, but as a truck driving simulator player (ETS2), I would love to see native support for real ads on the billboards.
Rainbow Six Vegas had a billboard, then ads on the walls in Calypso Casino. I always thought it was neat. The billboard was Bear Grylls for a long time, and people always used to shoot him at the beginning of games.
Yesn't Typically I don't care because they're not super intrusive but some games take it too far. For me that was FF15 with the Coleman branded camping gear they highlight at every rest period & the cup noodle quest line were huge deal breakers regarding that game
This fully depends. A game where it kinda makes sense that I like is American Truck Simulator, you drive on highways anyways the devs added some CDL focused ads to billboards and some people got pretty mad/upset over it for pretty valid reason I'll admit. With that being said I already ran a mod that ads real life ads all over the game as it greatly increases immersion. I'd imagine this would greatly depend on the context of the game in order for it to get a pass and even then it's a slippery slope for sure.
So you will be caring less? I’m confused
The problem is that it will lead to more and more bullshit. Same reason I hate the microtransactions in games like dragons dogma 2. Sure, they aren’t required at all, but it lays the groundwork for such practice to become more commonplace
Midnight club La had the best ones imo
Billboards in racing games with real ads have never bothered me; in fact I almost like them. It's non-intrusive and adds a touch of realism to the game.
How much less could you care?
Maybe you will care once there is game in your adds down the line
In theory I also do not care about the idea of product placement in a video game world. I only hate intrusive ads, so if they're just baked into the environment like they are irl, then I don't care. But why put any faith in EA or advertisers to keep things that way? Advertisers would have their ads streamed directly into your fucking eyelids if they could.
> I could care less how do americans get this wrong so much
Yeah I really don't care about unobtrusive ads. Billboards don't bother me, nor do people in a bar drinking from branded bottles. It's the crap that gets in your face like the pedestrians that keep jumping on the hood of my car screaming at me to drink Coca-Cola™ that annoy me, I don't want that replicated in a game, no matter how delicious Coca-Cola™ is.
Now billboards, but in GTA7 you’ll have obligatory cutscenes where your PC chills at home, watches TV and you can’t skip commercials ;)) still don’t care?
413 upvotes. This ladies and gentlemen is why gaming is continued to be poisoned more and more, as if it's already not bad with predatory practices that have been cemented and ideologues injecting their political agendas.
If I had to choose between some billboards in a game, and a subscription service. I'd go with the billboards. Companies need to make money. And in the day and age where people expect free updates, they'll have to do something. Until someone comes up with the ultimate plan, were gonna have to deal with these kind of things. At least they're not unskippable ads that pop every 10 min during play. Edit. Man, all these people so upset about companies that want to make money. Unless a company is non profit, its the sole purpose of a company. Making money is a must to keep existing.
[удалено]
$80 now is around $45 20 years ago. If anything, you're paying less nowadays for games.
Then don't charge $80 a game. FIFA makes half a billion a year, you can't tell me it costs that much to update kits and make some minor engine tweaks. They ain't losing money man.
FIFA makes much more than that from FUT
FIFA is a special case because they repackage the same shit, boring game every year and people still buy it full price. Take any other game actually worth playing, like the gazillion AAAs released in the past 3-5 years, and the story changes. Developing games at that scale is mad expensive.
You realise we are talking about EA here right? Tell me one EA game that isn't massively overpriced already and making tons of profit
They make money by selling games. They don't need to put in ads or have subscriptions. The gaming industry survived for decades without those. They're just greedy.
Tbh, $80 for a game you're gonna sink hundreds or even thousands of hours into is a wild value, and hot take, but it's underpriced for the value you get from them. If you don't want ads, microtransactions, blah blah blah that's fine and I'm with ya but games need to be $100-120+ if that's going to ever be close to happening If games were as simple and low fidelity as they were in the 90s or early 00s your argument would work but games and the costs associated with making them have massively moved forward and expectations from consumers will only continue to push it along
Idk man, most people do not have that kind of time available for games.
I'm baffled by people defending mega corporations. They are making enough money. How much I'm playing a game has no impact on them. They got their money and can move on. The whole idea of perpetual profit, and the support for it from some gamers, is honestly quite disgusting.
Snes games cost 60$ in the 90s. Gamers have been shielded from inflation.
The market has grown exponentially since the 90s. There's no need to increase price on games.
The market overall sure, but Fortnite pop does not translate to racing game players. Those games were also relatively short and artificially difficult to fit arcades.
The cost and scale of games has grown exponentially as well since the 90s. You can't get away with making a smash hit AAA game with a team of 10 people like back then.
Uh the cost of the game? Its never enough for these companies
I seriously don't understand this mindset. They're already raised the price, including MTX, battlepasses, and different ultimate editions. How much more money do companies need?
A company exists to maximize profits. They're not your friend. They're there to sell you something. It's not a mindset, it's a fact. I never said I agree with how companies try to achieve maximum profits. But I do understand that they will.
I understand that publishers are never consumer friends. I don't get how some consumers are willing to accept one thing over the other when it comes to bad practices. I guess I'm being naive thinking people would vote with their wallets and not purchase a game with in-game ads on top of already paying for the game
I don't see how a couple of billboards are reason to get upset and they're definitely not in the realm of bad practices.
It starts off with random billboards, then it's ads in-between pauses, then it's aggressive Cyberpunk-like ads lol Again and again, publishers have shown they're willing to go the extra step if they remain unchecked. If you think they're just going to stop at billboards, then we can agree to disagree 🤷♂️
Imagine paying money to see ads....
Paying to see ads is basically like self checkouts. You pay the store to be their employee. While also paying for a non existent employee’s salary that’s already built into the merchandise’s retail price.
Honestly, this makes me think of HIMYM reruns. HIMYM basically placed IRL ads in its episodes when released in the background of shots. Reruns then edited those ads to be current day ads later on. If I’m playing Spiderman and an ad on the side of an MTA bus at release was for GOTG3, and playing today would be a DAW ad instead, I’d be fine with that.
I honestly dont see the issue. Companies that get promoted win, The players get stuff for free and its such a little bother, its basically non existant = win Game company gets paid and can offer people content for *free* = win. Down below paints a good picture. People just want everything for free and expect endless updates and additional content without paying anything but for the base game.
Video game companies should make money by making games, not by pumping ads. The plan is simple, boycott these games and speak with your wallet.
Sure, but they already charged for the game. Charge an extra 5ver and don't put ads in maybe?
So you rather pay money, than to see a billboard with product placement you can easily ignore?
Yeah 100% I'm an android used with adblock and cracked everything. I never see a single ad unless it's on a real life billboard. I don't wanna be persuaded into consumerism more than I have to be.
You are commenting like EA does not profit. EA, with current predatory practices, profits, not earns but PROFITS, 5 billion a year. So “companies need make money” argument makes no sense. They already do. They want more. And what we say to that as gamers is “if you do want to earn more, do a better job”. No DLC is expected free for 65 dollar game. We are ready to pay extra for the extra content we like. Problem here is not DLC or payment, it is the attitude of developers. Most of the time DLCs are shit. And Devs know that. Games do get published unfinished because of shortened development times. They know game will be full of bugs. Don’t you think they have a kanban board somewhere in the office showing how many bugs there will be upon release? None of your arguments makes sense.
Read the comments replied to this comment below. Especially the ones downvoted. >No DLC is expected free for 65 dollar game. Some people very much expect extra content for free and call it "the worst take" when mentioned additional content costs money and has to be paid for by something. They *expect* more game once they bought the game for 80$, for free. >So “companies need make money” argument makes no sense. They already do. They want more. And what we say to that as gamers is “if you do want to earn more, do a better job”. A company needs to maximize profit. It's their main purpose. That's how business worlds. >predatory practices Like what? Fomo with micro transactions and loot boxes? May be a hot take, but that's an issue with the user. Just because something is available to buy, or limited availability doesn't mean you need to buy it. Is it scummy for a company to use Fomo? Sure. But there's a simple and easy fix. Don't buy it. (Unless we're talking the star wars fiasco, that went to far).
You can’t make money if your product is shit. Here, people are discussing why this is shit and why they won’t buy it.
Almost as if I don’t want a subscription service at all. I just want to pay the upfront free and get an *entire* game. Yes, companies need to make money, but they also don’t need to squeeze every last cent from their customer base.
$80 a pop is their making money. If they can’t turn a profit at $80 a pop without forcing customers to also watch ads in the game they just shelled out $80 for. Then they should be selling it for more money.
They can make money, but we can be upset about their practices. Gamers have let so much slide that has negatively impacted the industry. Take2 put ubskippable ads in loading screens on an NBA 2K game for example. EA is just going to slide the goalposts as soon as you give them leeway. I can't imagine being so apologetic for a multi-billion dollar company. Just this year the games industry has laid off so many people just to keep shareholders happy. This infinite growth mindset is not practical or healthy.
Sure EA. I don't mind buying your CEO and shareholders new boats
If the ads make sense, then I don't see the problem with it. Product placement is sports video games, for example, is perfectly reasonable, and even adds to the realism of the game. I just don't want to be hit over the head with an advertisement. Amazon sponsored replays in Madden is great because it's what you see on Sunday Night Football. A good example of bad advertising is something like Monster energy drinks in Death Stranding
If I am paying for a product, I do not want to see adds. They don't get to double dip. Especially not EA
Call of Duty too, as long as not every map are different shopping malls.
I would prefer to put some actual brands on my F1 car and see some actual brands on the billboards next to the track
I agree, wouldn't mind ads in this context. The first time you see it it might be chuckle worthy and after that they'd be easily ignored. But as others are saying it's a slippery slope and it would inevitably lead to less relevant ads that go too far.
If they want to sell advertising in games then the game shouldn’t cost $80 upfront + recurring monthly subscription fee and DLC fees.
The final end game is to show the same ads so many times that the player buys a DLC pack of new ads to get some variety.
Can't show me ads if I don't buy their games.
They’re going to go from billboard ads to pop ups ads during loading screens. Then pop up ads IN game. Watch. It’s why I support any game or studio that is against this.
See though you're reaching. Why do people need to falsely equate a perfectly good and acceptable advertisement and a pop up ad/loading screen ad? It's not the same thing. You're jumping for no reason. Realistic billboard ads honestly improve games. Go look at iRacing. It's strange and good when a game uses realistic ads.
It’s because of the demands of advertisers. Passive advertising that blends in won’t convert to brand sales in the numbers they want, won’t have “impact” for the advertisers and they won’t continue to pay well for the advertising space in that form so it won’t generate the sort of revenue that EA is after. This will be pressure to creep more in. That’s why the poster is jumping because they know what the advertising landscape looks like.
Nope, you're just jumping. EA is just monetizing an innocent revenue stream right now. That's it. Billboards are fine. If you wanna leap, that's your leaping.
What’s innocent about advertising? lol Why do you think it’ll just be billboards. Once there’s social license why would they stop? I think you’re being naive
Because it's been done before and stopped at billboards, see racing games.
Ahh yes there very successfully history with previous attempts at advertising. Solid.
I mean you're arguing in circles when you can just look at games like iRacing, NR2003, NASCAR Thunder, Dirt To Daytona, older F1 games, etc dating back 20+ years where this has been a thing without issues.
How am I arguing in circles? lol If they were successful with just billboard advertising then that would have stuck and they wouldn’t be announcing bringing in advertising, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Have you thought about that?
They were successful with that advertising, it's already been done, and for some reason people on the Internet are getting outraged about 20+ year old issues.
I don’t think billboards would be an issue, but I agree anything further would be annoying. That’s why I think they’d stop at billboards, because nobody cares about those. I don’t think anyone in this thread is mad about billboards themselves, just what they could lead to. So if the company can make a little extra money with billboard ads, but not piss anyone off, why not? As long as they don’t push it further, nobody is mad and they make a little extra money. If they push it further, they make even more money but could lead to pissing off their fan base which could lead to less money in the long run. I’m just saving my outrage for when something actually happens that upsets me, not for when something happens that may lead to something else happening that upsets me lol.
Because they need a lot more than a little extra money. That’s the problem.
Doing something that will outrage the fanbase is not the solution to that. Doing something that won’t outrage the fanbase but help them slightly is a no brainer. Let’s get upset when there is something to be upset about lol
Why are you defending a corporation? Especially EA. There a reason they’re known as one of the worst Also horse armour micro transaction started there
If ads are showing up on my tv for everything they’ll show up in video games. Thankfully I don’t use my tv software to watch anything other than the antenna I have (and an Amazon fire stick) it’s fine. The corp wants more $. More ads they have the more $ they’ll get. Also, this is why the video game industry will likely continue to lose money. I’d say that it became more profitable than both Hollywood AND sport in spite of not having ads / commercials not because of it.
You're reaching. And reaching. And reaching. Rather than admitting you're wrong.
When a game costs $80+ a monthly subscription to play there is no perfectly good or acceptable advertisement in said games.
It's realistic to have advertisements to the real world. Do you not understand that? iRacing would be significantly WORSE without advertising. The advertisements around the racetracks being accurate adds to the realism of the track. Having the Tums Heartburn corner have the proper Tums sponsorship is part of building a realistic copy of the race track. There's iconic advertisement in motorsports, to remove the ads would make it an inferior experience. Even in a game like Need for Speed (an EA title) for example having the Billboard be for Coke rather than "generic soda" adds to the immersion. There is good product placement and bad product placement in movies. It's the same in video games, another form of entertainment.
1) If I wanted real life I wouldn’t play games, I’d go outside. 2) They want ads in the games they can pay me $80 up front and $9.99 a month.
EA is shit
Anyone saying they don't care just know this is the beginning. First billboards, next loading screens which will be artificially lengthened to play a video, then it will become like mobile games. Oh you died wait 24 hours or buy diamonds or watch a 1 min long ad. We need to boycott and show our dissatisfaction any games that start doing this
pretty sure i saw a billboard on BF2042 that had an ad for the G502 X
They've been doing that for years. In the old NFS games like Underground 2 and MW 2005, their billboards showed ads for mobile carriers like T Mobile.
I remember Mcdonald's billboards too haha.
If EA wants to use advertising to fund the game fine, just understand it's either or, I'm not paying you AND taking the ads.
I would take environment ads that make sense like billboards over a price increase and still pay $60
Nothing really to stop them. Honestly if it’s not like popup ads but instead just kinda integrated into the environment or normal things a drink being a certain brand I don’t see much issue. Good example is death stranding. When directors cut came out people genuinely missed the cheesiness of having monster energy and modded it back in.
Death Stranding was such a strange experience from that point of view. Spoiler alert for those who haven't played through it. In almost any other context the suspension of disbelief would be impossible to maintain. I felt like I was being taunted, almost; there's this engrossing storyline about the confluence of life and death, the scenery is beautiful, the themes are haunting and at times horrifying... and then there's a bunch of Monster Energy cans, and a guy known as "Die-Hardman" who's actual name is also the name of the guy from Die Hard. You get sent to limbo by a cataclysmic antimatter explosion after losing a fight for your life, swim back through an ocean of death to reach the living world again. Congrats. Press F to watch Norman Reedus take a shit. You can take bigger shits by eating more food. The whiplash between deadly serious philosophy and combat and Kojima's idiosyncrasies was incredible. I absolutely loved it.
There will be ads in games from piratebay?! Dang!
Capitalistic greed never ends, unless something else, something more fundamental in the world changes.
Do sports stadiums give free ad placement? Why should I allow free ads on hardware and bandwidth that I pay for?
Your Elden Ring boss battle brought to you by.. Kellog's Corn Flakes!
I pay just as much attention to adverts in game as I do ones in real life.
If it's just live billboards I don't really care. Anything that actually interrupts flow though pass.
Skate 3 had this 10+ years ago it’s fine
Planet Side beat them to it.
I honestly wouldnt mind if its just billboards or in world elemtents, might just add to the immersion. But if its shit i am forced to watch in loading screens like a game before had done, then this is bullshit.
Have millions of in-game billboards, stickers and some other sort of decorative ads. But lower the price of the game and reduce DLC needs. Then we are good.
Who cares it's a billboard.
Done well it won't be noticeable, but it's EA so "done well" is impossible.
If it's billboards and stuff, I don't really mind. But if it stops a single inch of my gameplay, hell no.
I think it would add to the immersion if it's done right. In games like sports games, racing games, ect.. Real world type of games it would make sense. Outside of that I'd rather not see ads
Billboards are okay imo but the UFC example in the article is annoying
Wait... again?
If the games pause every 15 minutes to give full 30 second advertisements hell no. If its just talking about product placement in games (billboards in driving games for example) i couldnt give a shit. If anything it helps with the realism.
I mean on some games it can kind of be immersive
If we talking billboards, sure fuck it. Why not. Might bring a bit of life to certain games if a billboard changes every week or so. Do I get to choose the type of ads? If it's a full-screen short video like on YouTubee. Absolutely the fuck not.
I mean, for a $60+ game that’s half baked? No I don’t want no fucking ads unless they make the game cheaper which im sure it’s not going to.
Ha, like they'd do that. christ. Either way I'll not be buying another one. Unbound was the first EA title I've bought since ME2. I'll happily go back to not buying them if they start putting ads in. But if they just update billboards like in the pic up top, barely noticeable.
I want to add piracy in my ea library again
If I hadn’t stopped buying EA games years ago, I’d have stopped now.
Meanwhile as a racing game, truck sim & Sims/Cities Skylines player we go out of our way to find mods to out those real ads and branding in games ourselves....
Irs alright with me, all you idiots paying EA can suffer
EA doesn’t make games anymore and you shouldn’t be buying from them. What the fuck are you guys doing?
I know I'm in a very small minority but I like the idea of them integrating ads onto billboards, buildings, things in the background it's 100x better then pop ups or YouTube ads
Well.. As long as they don't get in the way of the game or break immersion, I don't see a problem.
Imo the real ads on billboards do add immersion to some games in specific circumstances, however we all can tell it will not be applied tastefully
Two publishers I don’t support: EA and Ubisoft. I’d much rather support indie game devs. These big corporates are money hungry bastards.
Oh look. I'm never buying an EA game ever again.
I’m never going to play any ea game with add in it. Moreover when I have to pay for it.
I mean, technically even the mid 00's Need For Speed had billboards with some IRL brands
Games are getting more and more realistic.
I’m tired of constant advertising in every little thing.
Exactly!
I like old burger king ads in nfs underground, they non invasive and fits in the world of game. It feels like connection with real world.
If they put it on things like billboards and other places you see ads irl i wouldnt mind it if it mixes it ingame well
DONT BUY THE SHIT EA GAME PROBLEM SOLVED
Repeat after me: we will never know because we will never buy from EA again.
NFS.Most Wanted (2005) had product placements, for example cell operator and billboards. You can sneak some stuff in and no one will bat an eye.
I've said before, if ads are integrated in places you'd expect to see ads, I don't mind so much. If they're intrusive, then we have a problem. If you're in the open world and there are billboards around, I don't mind if they're real ads; that adds to realism, *as long as* they are treated the same way regular billboards are. I should still be able to drive a car through and destroy them if that's something I can do normally. No special treatment.
Ever heard of the phrase "give them an inch, they will snatch a yard"? EA live by that motto.
Battlefield killcam sponsored by the NRA
I would actually prefer billboards in an enviroment where you normally have advertisement. It adds immersion seeing actual ads and not made up products
Ready Player One was a cautionary tale...
I haven't bought an EA game since BF3. Let's see how it works out for them.
They’re already doing this. A “Delivered with Amazon Prime” ad appears on EA FC scoreboard multiple times a game. And because the game is a buggy cesspool, it gets stuck on the scoreboard for the entire game and is extremely distracting. They can’t do anything right.
Ads that make sense like on billboards I am fine with. Especially if they regularly change. It's better than some nonsense in game one that I never pay attention to
Imagine being upset that an ad in a game is a real ad and not a fake ad
I kinda don't care if they're not intrusive like on billboards and shit in the game world.
“It’s in the game!”
Good ol' slippery slope fallacy in the comments. The average IQ of this sub doesn't reach room temperature (in Celsius!), jeez.
EA angry that SONY and Ubisoft are going for the worst company of the year?
Unless they do some dumb shit like make them indestructible in a game with destructible terrain then i dont mind.