As if things couldn't get any worse, now EA are looking at ways of putting adverts in video games to squeeze every possible penny from you.
We have mass layoffs with CEOs taking no responsibility, AI being shoved in our faces everywhere possible to eventually replace everyone and now real-world adverts inside our video games too? When will this AAA enshittification of gaming end? Never, obviously. CEOs and their shareholders will never stop chasing every possible extra penny. Growth for growths sake and it simply must continue. Consume consumers!
Writing in their latest Earnings Call, Andrew Wilson - Electronic Arts Inc. - Chairman & CEO said:
"To answer your question on advertising broadly, again, I think it's still early on that front. And we have looked over the course of our history to be very thoughtful about advertising in the context of our play experiences. But again, as we think about the many, many billions of hours spent, both playing, creating, watching and connecting and where much of that engagement happens to be on the bounds of a traditional game experience, our expectation is that advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us."
Wilson continues:
"We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that, but we have teams internally in the company right now looking at how do we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences. But more importantly, as we start to build community and harness the power of community beyond the bounds of our games, how do we think about advertising as a growth driver in those types of experiences?"
This only makes me think of that scene in Ready Player One, where they talk about selling up to 80% of your vision for adverts.
Pictured - Ready Player One, Warner Bros. Pictures
Also mentioned in the report is that Apex Legends continues to do well as it "grew 29 points over the last fiscal year" and as for Battlefield? A new one is on the way that "is going to be another tremendous live service". That's…certainly a way to describe an upcoming game.
For Linux and Steam Deck fans, EA are not exactly doing great. Their continued push for their home-grown EA anticheat has been causing problems because it's not supported at all. At least for now Apex Legends is safe with EAC which was just updated.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I've recently been playing Cyberpunk, and what struck me is how they shove adverts everywhere (it's part of the game world, so it's on purpose). It also upsets the in-game npc's sometimes.
Interesting that if you go to the wealthiest suburb alone, there are significantly less adds there,
Also very little ads if you go to dead towns/pacifica.
Like they know that you don't annoy the political powerful, and it's not worth it to sell to an audience that is either too poor or rebellious to buy.
It's a very sad commentary as to where we are going with the ensh***ification of things.
Open Steam.
Select the Store.
Search for Electronic Arts.
Click on the "Gear" icon
Select "Ignore this Publisher"
Isn't this old news? Or wrong companyNo, it's very clearly their 2024 report. They did briefly try something in the past, but they're once again looking at it and as quoted, have people working on it.
Super Simple Solution:
Open Steam.
Select the Store.
Search for Electronic Arts.
Click on the "Gear" icon
Select "Ignore this Publisher"
Thanks, didn't know it was possible to ignore a whole publisher.
Last edited by pb on 13 May 2024 at 11:16 am UTC
I've recently been playing Cyberpunk, and what struck me is how they shove adverts everywhere (it's part of the game world, so it's on purpose). It also upsets the in-game npc's sometimes.
Interesting that if you go to the wealthiest suburb alone, there are significantly less adds there,
Also very little ads if you go to dead towns/pacifica.
TBH Cyberpunk was one of the first games that came to my mind. I wonder how people would react if some of these ads/billboards were actually advertising real-life products. Of course keeping within the mood, not Skittles or Always. There are many Cyberpunk-franchised products in the shops (I've seen energy drinks for example), maybe they could be advertised in-game too and blend well? (Sorry for giving them ideas :D but I'm genuinely curious).
Last edited by pb on 13 May 2024 at 11:29 am UTC
They did briefly try something in the past
That has to be it, didn't Ubisoft and/or 2k look into this as well?
Many pubs have tried to do so yes.They did briefly try something in the past
That has to be it, didn't Ubisoft and/or 2k look into this as well?
Many pubs have tried to do so yes.
"Before you down this pint of ale, here's a word from our sponsor!"
I've recently been playing Cyberpunk, and what struck me is how they shove adverts everywhere (it's part of the game world, so it's on purpose). It also upsets the in-game npc's sometimes.
Interesting that if you go to the wealthiest suburb alone, there are significantly less adds there,
Also very little ads if you go to dead towns/pacifica.
TBH Cyberpunk was one of the first games that came to my mind. I wonder how people would react if some of these ads/billboards were actually advertising real-life products. Of course keeping within the mood, not Skittles or Always. There are many Cyberpunk-franchised products in the shops (I've seen energy drinks for example), maybe they could be advertised in-game too and blend well? (Sorry for giving them ideas :D bu I'm genuinely curious).
Ooh, how would you do that with performance metrics and would it stand up in advert distinquishability regulation.
Making the billboard clickable is probably the preferred option, but hard.
The distinquishability problem could probably be fixed with a warning at the start of the game.
Greed: EA
Wrath: Nintendo
Sloth: Bethesda
Pride/Hubris: Rockstar Games
Lust: Epic Games
Gluttony: Microsoft
Envy: ???
Last edited by Talon1024 on 13 May 2024 at 11:29 am UTC
Support smaller games and indie titles that respect your time and money, instead - you can get a lot more of them for the price that EA asks for a single release.
Sincerely: Someone whose favourite series would be in a better spot if people did the above.
I don't like the idea itself, but to be the devil's advocate: it *can* be done right. Like Lucozade in Superfrog (the original release) or even whole sponsored games such as Cool Spot (7up), Zool (Chupa Chups) and Global Gladiators (McDonald's). So basically, product placement in games. I don't think people would necessarily mind that. Maaaaybe well-blended-in billboards (although SCS wanted to do that in Euro/American Truck Sims and there was a lot of backlash). But commercial breaks? No way. It shall not pass.
The Zool series from the early 1990s was sponsored by Chupa Chups. The branding was made very obvious when you purchased the game, so it wasn't intrusive or irritating. What EA are suggesting is not on, however.I just played McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure (Mega Drive, via RetroDECK) this past weekend, and it's another example from this old-style pool of "advergames" - it was up-front about the product-placement, it respected the fact that the license is well-liked, and it was a good and complete game. I highly recommend it if you're after a short-but-sweet 16-bit platformer that you might've missed back in the day.
However, we all know from EA's previous experiments with in-game advertising, and from their track-record in general over the last 15 to 20 years, that this isn't what they're aiming for - look up that old boxing-game of theirs where they literally flashed full-screen ads in your face during gameplay, that'll be more like it. Presumably also with an option to pay EVEN MORE to stop the ads from locking up your character during gameplay.
its a completely different thing to interrupt the gameplay of an game to show an ad, and use the ingame scenario to put ads on, lets say, billboards.
the second case would just feel natural, i mean there are tons of ads on futebol billboards, and in some cities like newyork.
if they replaced one of the forms of monetization, like less dlcs, cheaper prices on the main game, or stuff like that and put ads to compensate that wouldnt be that bad.
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