PlayStation 3 opens up to in-game advertising

Davey Winder
Thursday, 10 July 2008 20:02

Your IT - Entertainment

Jonathan Epstein, President and CEO at Double Fusion says that it has already received "tremendous support from publishers who want to incorporate ads into their PS3 games, across all of the regions of the world" adding "PS3 will add a vast number of players to our already robust network."

This is a company that proclaims it has "successfully expanded the idea that any game type, genre, or platform can harness the power of advertising" and includes 30 top-tier game publishers in a portfolio reaching gamers from 12 to 49 years old.

Double Fusion insists that 75 percent of gamers notice ads while playing video games, the same amount "engage with at least one ad per minute" while 81 percent "engage at least every other minute." I am sorry, but the idea of engaging with (runs through marketing BS translator and ends up with 'is confronted by') adverts in my games every bloody minute does not enthuse me with excitement.

One of the gamers quoted on the Double Fusion website insists that in-game adverts are OK because "Like in Ghost Recon, you have the Dodge billboards in the urban areas, and I think that is pretty effective... it adds realism because, you know, you see ads in the real world"

The realism argument just does not wash as far as I am concerned, after all if I wanted realism I would not be escaping into the fantasy of a video game in the first place...