RSSIn-game advertisements coming to Sony PS3
By Tim Conneally | Published June 5, 2008, 9:00 AM
Sony has selected IGA Worldwide as its first partner to provide dynamic in-game advertisements for PlayStation 3 games, with an initial focus on the frequently delayed MMO undertaking called Home.
Within Home, the company says the simulated environment will "depict brands in various forms...where users would expect to see them in real life: on billboards and posters, on shopping bags and soda cans and on images of TV screens."
Sony may be a bit late to the advertising party, but the timing of this announcement is no less interesting. On Tuesday, competing firm Massive Inc. announced twice that a study the group had conducted proved that in-game marketing "just works" in the Xbox 360 and PC and that 73% of those participating in one of the tests found that the ads actually contributed to the game's realism.
The jury appears to still be out regarding the strength of the advertising dollar. A recent study by IDC postulates that online advertising is one of the few areas that will remain resistant to the weakening US economy, and will actually surpass print media, cable television and broadcast television as the industry's preferred medium.
Recently, research firm eMarketer actually predicted the opposite, a drop in advertising growth, and online ad optimization company PubMatic showed a 23% decrease in online ad rates. Video games apparently were not included in these tallies, so as of now, things still look favorable for this burgeoning new medium.
And now form Sony, ripoff company of the last two decades, we bring you...
...a whole new level in consumer annoyance.
'nuff said.
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Hi Tim,
I'm the Marketing Director for PubMatic. This is an interesting post. I would like to point out that:
1) PubMatic is an online ad optimization company, not a research company. We provide a simple solution for publishers like BetaNews to increase the revenue of your ad inventory. Every month we publish our Ad Price Index that monitors online advertising revenue across different categories--but that is just an education tool, not our business.
2) Our published data didn't predict a decrease in ad click-throughs; in fact, we didn't predict anything. We only showed past data, and even that didn't show a downturn in click-throughs across the board. Some segments improved from the previous month, others didn't.
We will be publishing another Ad Price Index this month, and we will likely be highlighting the online gaming category, but that shouldn't be confused with console-based in-game advertising which is what Sony and Massive are speaking about.
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Duly noted, thanks!
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WoW is for nerdies.
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WoW is just stupid.
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I would be ok with ads if they made the game free or at least cheaper. If the ads do neither then I don't like them.
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It's Sony so you know prices will remain the same.
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Ads are a no no.
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Need to make up those lost $$ somehow huh Sony. Congrats on another brilliant move to push some consumers further away.
As for home.. id rather go and play WoW.. atleast theres stuff to do then hang out and circle jerk
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did you miss the part where Microsoft already did that with the 360?
way to not pay attention...
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I recently stopped buying online games for my ps3, I just pre-ordered "battlefield:badcompany" for my xbox360 instead and plan on continuing that trend until ps3 releases HOME!!!
I got GTA4 for ps3 and although the graphics are abit nicer than xbox the online feels sloppy in the realm of "matchmaking"
sony...release a public beta already come on!!
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