EA Extends In-Game Ad Deal

by pastapadre
Posted March 17th, 2008 at 11:37 pm

EA has extended an agreement with Massive to provide in-game advertising for their 360 and PC titles. They originally partnered up in August 2006 and have now tacked on another two years.

Tuesday’s agreement with Massive is essentially an extension and expansion of a previous one-and-a-half year deal with the New York-based ad firm. With the new global deal, EA said the next two iterations of annual EA Sports franchises such as Madden NFL, NBA Live, NASCAR and NHL will use the Massive in-game ad network on Xbox 360. The agreement also grants Massive exclusive in-game ad rights to “a majority” of EA’s PC titles.

Opinions seem to be split on the topic of in-game ads but most have at least come to accept and tolerate them. To me they actually increase the realism and immersiveness and I prefer seeing them in. That is as long as they are naturally placed and don’t conflict with the flow of the game or become a distraction. So far they’ve been implemented in ways that haven’t done so and I would expect that to continue to be the case.

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alex

Yeah in game advertising really makes the game more immersive, especially in Madden when I go to look at the yearly awards screen and I am always greeted by a large Cadillac logo, or when I try and view weekly awards and get to see a huge Snickers advertisement at the top of the screen. Ridiculous, if you are going to bombard me constantly with these ads at least drop the retail price of the game to reflect the profit you receive from me having to put up with these ads.

Eski

I personally don't mind the in-game advertising. It adds realism to the broadcast. However, over-use can get a tad ludicous....

I wish that the real advertisements were in all the stadiums regardless of the sport. Most of the time, I barely notice. If advertisers want to show up in games, toss in some coupons for free 20oz Cokes / Pepsi or coupons for product in the game cases....

OR lower the cost of the game disks....

CrimsonVoodoo

The PS3 users getting "shafted" remark was curious - if I was a PS3 user I'm not sure I'd feel I was getting jobbed because I wasn't the receipient of advertising

Russell Giles

[quote comment="15708"]I'm not sure but that may be the first time I've ever heard anyone COMPLAIN that they weren't getting enough advertising ...

CrimsonVoodoo
"be happy to send some of mine"[/quote]

No sir, I wasn't complaining as I have a 360. I was just simply curious.

CrimsonVoodoo

I'm not sure but that may be the first time I've ever heard anyone COMPLAIN that they weren't getting enough advertising ...

CrimsonVoodoo
"be happy to send some of mine"

Russell Giles

Not that it matters, but does this mean that the PS3 will not have as many in-game ads as their Xbox 360 counterpart? If so, the PS3 users continue to get shafted.

BustyBuffet

If they are going to make that much money off of advertisements they should lower the cost of their games. It's just another way of big business taking advantage of the general public. Lowering games by 10 dollars or so with that many advertisements just seems fair. I know it's wishful thinking but it should be the case.

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