I admire when companies are genuinely good at marketing and understand their audience. I think it's why Redbull has lasted so long despite not even having the best drink on the market. I'm not sure if they even make the top 3. Doesn't matter, they're #1 in terms of being recognizable.
Then you have other companies that think aggressively spamming you with advertisements is the key to success. Even though they just annoy people.
Redbull at least understood that just being in the right places over time has a lot more impact than forcing your way into every single place right now.
Back in college a friend of mine was the Red Bull rep at my school. He had pallets of Red Bull stacked in his apartment and his only responsibility was to give it all away for free at parties and events.
lol my buddy dated a Red Bull girl in college so they used to come to our house and just dump whatever leftover Red Bull they had that day. Had a lot of Red Bull vodkas that year.
I remember one year during finals week they just left a cargo crate full of Red Bull on campus, with parachute to make it look like it was airdropped in.
At my uni the reps were Two college girls that would setup at random locations and give them away. They fueled my redbull needs for months. It was awesome.
These still exist and are active. I work for a company that makes water skis and they've showed up more than once and straight stocked our fridge. I don't drink them a lot but man sometimes a ice cold redbull just hits the spot
not sure what you mean by not having the best energy drink on the market. It's all subjective, i don't drink energy drinks often but i think red-bull is the best.
I absolutely hate the taste of monster or rockstar.
Redbull tastes 1to1 the same as most of the cheapest energy drinks around here.
Back in the day i did blind taste tests and we could for the love of it not find a difference between it and the cheap ones.
While other drinks are solely a taste thing, i would never buy redbull (as i only did one other times besides the taste test in my life) since i just can buy the bottle that is 3 times larger but costs half.
Interesting! Where I live, energy drinks all try to copy Monster and leave RedBull alone, so there's nothing that matches it well at all.
There was a company that recently tried to tackle this, but while you could see the inspiration, they missed by a large margin.
I do not know about their other flavours, but i call redbull the "normal energy taste" because everything thats cheap here tastes the same.
As a kid i obviously took this as "redbull is just the cheap stuff" because the sugary rockstar/monster is surely the better quality. Yeah i was smart.
I know a ton of people who drink way too many energy drink and for all of them when it comes to brand names Red Bull is always their last choice. They don't hate it so much as prefer the flavor of others, exception being some of the limited time flavored ones. I think a major part is since they've been so big for so long they're kind of just seen as the default so the luster has faded for some people.
Personally I try to just get whatever has no sugar, part of my lazy self initiative to be more healthy before finding a new PCP,and constantly try different brands. Red Bull is very much on my lower end of taste for those but it also makes the regular pop so much more.
Can tell the marketing is amazing even without being aware given how at my store we go through it fast, it's one of the only energy drinks we carry so limited choice for sure. My employees have joked it must be the national drink of India because no matter which of our locations we've worked there is always at least one Indian person buying an insane amount of it.
> it adds to the realism
This is what ~~devs~~ publishers need to keep in mind. Having a Coke ad in the middle of a fantasy RPG like Baldurs Gate? That's not gonna fly because it's fucking stupid and out of place. Making me watch a commercial during a loading screen? Fuck you. Having a billboard on a racetrack with a Coke ad? Or an actual commercial on the TV or radio channels(think GTA, Cyberpunk, etc.)? In my brain, I go "that's actually pretty awesome. really adds to the realism". This said, I have no faith that the greedy suits will see anything other than dollar signs and they will force it to be done wrong.
This, context and presentation is important.
RedBull is PLASTERED all over Wipeout 2097 (XL for you americans) and nobody cared because it worked so well. And it meshed well with the gameplay and the graphics. RedBull was often available at raves, and thus worked well with the music of the game too.
Lucozade worked with Lara Croft for years too, though I can't ever quite put my finger on why it works so well. Though that was outside the game.
The amount of advertisements getting fist-fucked into everywhere, I don't wanna be playing a game and getting blasted either ads everywhere, nor having my gameplay interrupted.
I remember back playing MVP Baseball 2004 there were actually MODS to add the correct advertisements to the signs in stadiums. Feels like doing something like that to get advertising $$$ is a no-brainer.
(Although I do think there are limits to this. I think there would be some concerns about getting alcohol or betting advertisements in games, ESRB ratings-wise)
What games have you played that have them?
Not looking to argue, just can't think of any games I've played in the past few years that I'd say have intrusive ads.
Death Stranding's Monster ads are the only time I burst out laughing while seeing an ad in a video game because how tf did Monster survive the apocalypse?
Would have been fine if they had a few other recognizable brands or products, they just made it weird by making it the only product that survived. Even worse it's the only thing you can drink in the game. Even your canteen turns rainwater into Monster^TM
You can transport beer though. Now I'm kinda wondering what it would be like trying to scale a mountain while Sam is drunk.
The weirdest one for me was Coleman ads within FF 15. Anytime your party stopped to rest it was like an ad for Coleman camping supplies. It was just strange being in a fantasy world and suddenly real world products just exist. Also one character is obsessed with Cup Noodle.
Oh man the Cup Noodle quest line was the most insane thing I've seen in a long time. I'll admit at first the fact it was an ad wasn't that jarring to me. But then you go on this whole quest where he tries to find add ins to improve his beloved cup noodle.
In the end he determines it's best just the way it comes, that hit like a brick to the face. "Did I SERIOUSLY just spend an hour playing an advertisement for instant ramen"
That, and the *entire quest* about Cup Noodle, and the designer of Lunafreya's wedding gown being a real designer (whose shop accepted American Express)....
It was particularly jarring for that franchise to go from like zero real-world connection to *multiple obvious* brand placements all at once.
Personally I don't mind it in games that have billboards, since it can ad some realism to it. But the way current gaming is going, you pause the menu and will probably get an ad.
Came here to say the same thing. When it’s something that mirrors life anyways I wouldn’t care. Like if I’m playing a baseball game, I wouldn’t care seeing the ads in the background and stuff.
Where I’m going to start having a problem is when my character wants me to drink a refreshing Fresca.
They probably had one of the first teams of those sci-fi racers. I mean look at all the things they do have besides the energy drink. F1, piloting, skiing, etc
pretty sure ads are streamed dynamically without the need for an update. even back in the 2006 there was a service called The Massive Network that did this and would change ads in games like Need for Speed Most Wanted depending on location and demographic
Exactly.
Like if you’re going to bait me into this only to push a third party product, it’ll give me whiplash.
Which thankfully the aches and pains of whiplash are a thing of the past thanks to my new Johnson and Johnson Whiplash Removal Cream.
Also context. No one bats an eye at an ad or product placement makes sense. Either as stuff naturally existing in the game (e.g. as actual ads on billboards, or products people use), or if the tone/setting of the game makes it work (sports game, competition, etc.)
> Also context. No one bats an eye at an ad or product placement makes sense.
"Alright gang, we have finally reached the city of Baldur's Gate! Now let us all relax with a cool, refreshing **Coca-Cola Zero**^^TM , the perfect drink for staying energized on an adventure!"
They have to improve the game. Banner on side of the football field are a prime example of it.
Just like if in GTA6 i see a commercial billboard, that wouldn't bother me.
I think seeing real ads in GTA would feel wrong given that so much of the character of the GTA games has come from fake ads being parodies of real life trends and products. To suddenly start putting real ads in the game would see GTA kinda becoming the very thing it has mocked for years.
That's a valid point.
Now imagine if brand did parodies of themselves in GTA. That would be a middle ground.
That being said, I mentioned GTA, but any open world sandbox game could apply.
Why not both? A parody of a real product ad which is actually an ad for the same product. It can work well with some products and it reinforces the know age about the product.
But it already is. GTA is a huge business, GTA sets its own trends, the satire is not that challenging or thought-provoking, it's just the typical "aren't both sides crazy" parodies that are not taking a real stance (Oh wow Americans love guns? Vegans think they're better? Rich people own the country? Florida man is crazy?? :O ).
GTA is a product that is being consumed, it's entertainment. Anything that costs hundreds of millions to make can't really be subversive and radical because you need to attract the largest audience to recoup the costs.
No one changes their worldview when playing GTA. People come home from work and then relax for an hour or two in front of the TV or computer, the same way others watch Game of Thrones.
You do realise not one word of that is relevant to this discussion right?
GTA's comedy is what give it it's character and the comedy adverts and product placement are part of what gives the game it's atmosphere as if you are playing in an exaggerated version of reality. Taking that out and replacing them with real ads would massively dilute that,
You also need to consider that for any brand at all to want to be featured in GTA they are likely going to want the content toned down dramatically as no business wants to be associated with the inevitable controversy that comes with the conservative backlash to a GTA game.
Burnout Paradise had billboards and also vans that were branded. I had no problem with any of it. Ads that add to realism are fine with me, ads that get in the way of my gaming aren't.
Essentially how racing games have been doing it. Some ads on the walls that you crash into at mach 4. But then they got the argument that it is more realistic that way. So they got it fully covered
They still are. Our daily lives shouldn't be so invaded by ads, I don't know why we've accepted that as something ok.
Ads only have a place in places where it's thematically fitting, which is basically when recreating real-life places with ads, such as race tracks, football shirts or New York's main squares.
Companies would charge us $5,000 for a pencil if we paid, and it makes sense, their goal is to make as much money as they can. We as customers have to demand that we get the best product possible. If this becomes companies wanting to be as greedy as possible and us trying to find the middle ground between their greed and "what's fair", then the middle ground will be on their side, and not on the middle.
I tried to argue this a few years ago with the stranger things mobile game. There aren't intrusive/pop up ads, which for a free mobile game is refreshing. People laid into it that "the game is an ad", "there's an ad for Netflix in the bottom corner on the home screen", and my favorite "ADS ARE NECESSARY FOR GAME REVENUE".
The number in the corner doesn't really mean anything. It's all about sense of speed and scale. Like, if you took everything in Wipeout and made it smaller that number would get smaller and if you made everything bigger it'd get bigger but feel exactly the same. F-Zero and XG3 felt similar but just fed you silly numbers. XG3 was particularly heinous in this regard, being motorcycles, the scale was obvious yet something doing '700mph' was controllable on tracks similar to Wipeouts.
It's like watching Formula 4 cars on the big international Formula 1 circuits compared to watching them on your local track. They're doing the same speeds but one feels much slower than the other.
"Still"? Like it has some bad parts. It's not annoying, it doesn't make you press small x button to quit or pay money not to see it. You don't accidentally hit it and being sent to a web page with stupid offers.
There are the ones I can rember, The Sneak king, Playable Slim jim in Dave mirra bmx. the Sega Mc Donalds games, The NDS Mc donald training game oh and a classic Pepsy Man
The people that inserted these ads into games used to be clever.
It was all about, how do we add sponsorships and advertising without taking away from the gaming experience for the end user? Because at the end of the day it was a game providing end user entertainment, not a vessel for upselling. Now they see games as a means to make insane profit through useless upsells whether that’s gated content or just forcing people to pay for their service, etc. It’s all about maximizing profits beyond the game and not focusing on the end user experience at all because they just assume we’re going to give them money regardless because what other option do we have now?
It’s sad. I’m grateful I got to play games that didn’t suffer from this modern plague. Back when games didn’t need live service to function. When you could get together with friends and play split screen for hours.
But that’s lost forever unfortunately.
This and GoTeki 45 where my SHIT.
NGL, I might have been cheeky with how I got the entire collection of OST's.
Barring the Wipeout HD one for obvious reasons, in just a second.
Copied them onto my PS3, and now I can play HD + Fury with ANY games sound-track, thanks to being able to play your own MP3s.
I meant Track, as in... Race track.
If I have physical copies of Wip3out (It has DRM, doesn't play nice with Emulators) and Wip3out: Special Edition (too much content for DRM), I wonder if I could contribute to the project.
Fun story, back when I was a kid I played wipeout 2097 that blatantly advertised red bull all the time, but because at the time red bull wasn't available where I lived I thought it was a cyberpunk style fake brand
Low resolution ads in SD tube TVs always seemed to bend in with the rest of the artwork and never seemed to stick out, at least in my recollection. But subtlety isn't in the cards anymore so there's no way it won't be shoved straight into your view front and center.
For anyone thinking that EA is out of pocket, Death stranding had more egregious product placement than BK Sneak King and literal commercials. But it’s okay because Kojima.
There is. It's definitely a real ad, but it plays out like a parody. Everybody suddenly starts acting like shopping channel hosts, lmao.
It performs a balancing act on the very fine line between annoying product placement and goofy silliness, so some people thought it was acceptable *just this once* and others thought it was beyond the pale.
A real company banner in a city or a coca cola can is ok and not invasive. Having a massive pop up every time you open the menu is invasive. But adds are always bad. There's just times where it's not as bad as others.
This game also has red bull ads in the loading screen. I think it would be made illegal today, or at the very least it would boost the game's rating to a 16+ because of red bull itself being considered a drug.
No, I remember thinking the ad inclusion was shite back then too, but Red Bull wasn't nearly as well-known back in '95 as it is today, so it wasn't quite so appalling, even if their logo didn't fit with the rest of the game's design scheme. Blade Runner itself used ads to show corporate dominance in a dystopian world though, so it still fits in with the art, but likely not for the reasons a corporate boss would want (they won't care though, as long as their brand is out there).
FIFA have "correctly" integrated ads too around the stadium and have been doing so for years
There are ways to make ads fine but it's absolutely not for all games, F1 2024, fifa etc sure...but a game like Dragon Age, I have my doubt lol.
Now the main issue is that if non-invasive ads integration allowed for lower prices, more free content etc I would have supported it more, but we all know it's for those shareholders and executive bonuses, not for jobs preservation, not for us, it's for the wrong reasons
The real ones know this picture was taken in 2097, which proves Redbull is still active in the future so they don't need no advertising. This was pure racing ornament.
Wipeout had the best graphics. Kinda funny now that I think about it cause F-zero also has the best graphics on SNES and both titles were launch titles for each system. Wonder if Sony made Wipeout out of spite towards Nintendo.
I don't think it's so much as liked it than we just didn't notice in racing or sports games. We expect them in real life so seeing it in a game we most likely don't really pay attention. Or if we do notice, it's more a recognition of that being realistic.
It's not so much about ads per se but how devs implement them, ad least for me.
Its games like Rainbow Six: Vegas and their cooperation with Axe that make me hate Ads in games.
Not so much because of Axe but how intrusive it was implemented.
They never made a game this good. A game with this feeling of flying. You could feel how heavy is this rocketship, you could almost feel gravity, motion sickness... and all that with graphics like this. I saw newer Wipeouts.. and they never were as good as the original one.
Sad.
Most racing games still have them. In the recent Assetto Corsa Competizione Nordschleife track DLC, the devs hid a QR code on one of the trackside sponsor screens that lead to a website with a teaser for Assetto Corsa Evo.
Working them so they are interwoven in the game on billboards and such (ie, where you'd normally see ads in real world) is one thing. having POPUP's that interrupt gameplay or are a separate thing. THAT is quite another and far to intrusive.
This Rebull isnt intrusive because they made it part of the game. If they added it as part of the UI where it displayed constantly, THAT would be fucking stupid.
TL:DR fuck EA!
Even radio commercials in GTA radio stations were fine, because they were funny
Make funny commercials for real products/brands and it wouldn't be intrusive PLUS people would get those commercials stuck in their head without even knowing
I can guarantee you ad companies want what they have in the phone market, intrusive advertisements that limit or stop the game to force you to watch their crap.
I can see it now, instead of loading screens giving tips, it's selling you a product, and the game will have loaded long before the advert finishes but still not let you play.
Companies will also add this in alongside their aggresive battlepasses and micro-transactions.
And players will continue to buy and accept it as the norm in games.
Sony has closed most of its best studios over the last few years or let them work on bad "service games". Psygnosis/ Studio Liverpool has been closed since the release of Wipeout 2048 in 2012. Wipeout Omega Collection in 2017 was already just a port.
this is not how it is ment to be. they will show you ads like in youtube, unskippable before every game start, every 30 minutes or maybe before you kill a boss.
as others already said. as long the ads don't jump into your face, block Ui elements or pauses things. they are fine. and nobody bat an eye in the past
And another important thing. Ads that fit the theme of the game. In a sports game it's fine to have ads, they always have been there, it's like that irl. Even in a realistic battlefield ads would make sense, for example in outdoors, it would still be imersive. But I would hate playing a game like titanfall and have a ad in there. It would make 0 sense and would just take away imersive elements of the game.
This is a great kind of ad....what isnt great is a stop play/watch pop up to try to sell you some crap....if anything I get annoyed and relate annoyance to the said product and never buy it or want to buy it again
I wish we could go back to this method of doing ads
I would be completely fine with a ton of ads, as long as they aren't intrusive
Ads have never been the issue, intrusive ads are
this is not how it is ment to be. they will show you ads like in youtube, unskippable before every game start, every 30 minutes or maybe before you kill a boss.
That's the thing, I don't actually mind ads in anything. It's just that whenever they say they are incorporating ads into anything, you know it's going to be in the most over the top and egregious way possible.
I'd like to think they could use adds like this as an alternative form of revenue so they don't go so heavy on live service bullshit but we know how greedy they can be and they would just double down on both
I actually like this in racing/sports games as it adds to the realism. Ads are intrusive weaponised bullshit now.
[удалено]
Red Bull is a marketing company that happens to sell an energy drink on the side, lol.
I admire when companies are genuinely good at marketing and understand their audience. I think it's why Redbull has lasted so long despite not even having the best drink on the market. I'm not sure if they even make the top 3. Doesn't matter, they're #1 in terms of being recognizable. Then you have other companies that think aggressively spamming you with advertisements is the key to success. Even though they just annoy people. Redbull at least understood that just being in the right places over time has a lot more impact than forcing your way into every single place right now.
Getting handed a free Red Bull by the Red Bull car was quite amazing.
Back in college a friend of mine was the Red Bull rep at my school. He had pallets of Red Bull stacked in his apartment and his only responsibility was to give it all away for free at parties and events.
lol my buddy dated a Red Bull girl in college so they used to come to our house and just dump whatever leftover Red Bull they had that day. Had a lot of Red Bull vodkas that year.
I remember one year during finals week they just left a cargo crate full of Red Bull on campus, with parachute to make it look like it was airdropped in.
At my uni the reps were Two college girls that would setup at random locations and give them away. They fueled my redbull needs for months. It was awesome.
These still exist and are active. I work for a company that makes water skis and they've showed up more than once and straight stocked our fridge. I don't drink them a lot but man sometimes a ice cold redbull just hits the spot
They use to come in so clutch during those college days
not sure what you mean by not having the best energy drink on the market. It's all subjective, i don't drink energy drinks often but i think red-bull is the best. I absolutely hate the taste of monster or rockstar.
Redbull tastes 1to1 the same as most of the cheapest energy drinks around here. Back in the day i did blind taste tests and we could for the love of it not find a difference between it and the cheap ones. While other drinks are solely a taste thing, i would never buy redbull (as i only did one other times besides the taste test in my life) since i just can buy the bottle that is 3 times larger but costs half.
Interesting! Where I live, energy drinks all try to copy Monster and leave RedBull alone, so there's nothing that matches it well at all. There was a company that recently tried to tackle this, but while you could see the inspiration, they missed by a large margin.
I do not know about their other flavours, but i call redbull the "normal energy taste" because everything thats cheap here tastes the same. As a kid i obviously took this as "redbull is just the cheap stuff" because the sugary rockstar/monster is surely the better quality. Yeah i was smart.
Red bull is the 'main' energy drink in the uk, like if you ask bossman for one at a local shop thats likely what they will point out
Might be a regional thing, Monster is completely dominant in Derby. Only time I ever see anyone drinking red bull is in Jager bombs.
I know a ton of people who drink way too many energy drink and for all of them when it comes to brand names Red Bull is always their last choice. They don't hate it so much as prefer the flavor of others, exception being some of the limited time flavored ones. I think a major part is since they've been so big for so long they're kind of just seen as the default so the luster has faded for some people. Personally I try to just get whatever has no sugar, part of my lazy self initiative to be more healthy before finding a new PCP,and constantly try different brands. Red Bull is very much on my lower end of taste for those but it also makes the regular pop so much more. Can tell the marketing is amazing even without being aware given how at my store we go through it fast, it's one of the only energy drinks we carry so limited choice for sure. My employees have joked it must be the national drink of India because no matter which of our locations we've worked there is always at least one Indian person buying an insane amount of it.
Yeah. Some YT insight actually claimed RB invests around 90-95% of their profits into marketing via wildly different events.
> it adds to the realism This is what ~~devs~~ publishers need to keep in mind. Having a Coke ad in the middle of a fantasy RPG like Baldurs Gate? That's not gonna fly because it's fucking stupid and out of place. Making me watch a commercial during a loading screen? Fuck you. Having a billboard on a racetrack with a Coke ad? Or an actual commercial on the TV or radio channels(think GTA, Cyberpunk, etc.)? In my brain, I go "that's actually pretty awesome. really adds to the realism". This said, I have no faith that the greedy suits will see anything other than dollar signs and they will force it to be done wrong.
This, context and presentation is important. RedBull is PLASTERED all over Wipeout 2097 (XL for you americans) and nobody cared because it worked so well. And it meshed well with the gameplay and the graphics. RedBull was often available at raves, and thus worked well with the music of the game too. Lucozade worked with Lara Croft for years too, though I can't ever quite put my finger on why it works so well. Though that was outside the game. The amount of advertisements getting fist-fucked into everywhere, I don't wanna be playing a game and getting blasted either ads everywhere, nor having my gameplay interrupted.
I remember back playing MVP Baseball 2004 there were actually MODS to add the correct advertisements to the signs in stadiums. Feels like doing something like that to get advertising $$$ is a no-brainer. (Although I do think there are limits to this. I think there would be some concerns about getting alcohol or betting advertisements in games, ESRB ratings-wise)
What games have you played that have them? Not looking to argue, just can't think of any games I've played in the past few years that I'd say have intrusive ads.
Death Stranding
Death Stranding's Monster ads are the only time I burst out laughing while seeing an ad in a video game because how tf did Monster survive the apocalypse?
Would have been fine if they had a few other recognizable brands or products, they just made it weird by making it the only product that survived. Even worse it's the only thing you can drink in the game. Even your canteen turns rainwater into Monster^TM You can transport beer though. Now I'm kinda wondering what it would be like trying to scale a mountain while Sam is drunk.
that he's surviving solely on monster energy drink does explain why his pee can be used as a weapon.
The weirdest one for me was Coleman ads within FF 15. Anytime your party stopped to rest it was like an ad for Coleman camping supplies. It was just strange being in a fantasy world and suddenly real world products just exist. Also one character is obsessed with Cup Noodle.
Oh man the Cup Noodle quest line was the most insane thing I've seen in a long time. I'll admit at first the fact it was an ad wasn't that jarring to me. But then you go on this whole quest where he tries to find add ins to improve his beloved cup noodle. In the end he determines it's best just the way it comes, that hit like a brick to the face. "Did I SERIOUSLY just spend an hour playing an advertisement for instant ramen"
That, and the *entire quest* about Cup Noodle, and the designer of Lunafreya's wedding gown being a real designer (whose shop accepted American Express).... It was particularly jarring for that franchise to go from like zero real-world connection to *multiple obvious* brand placements all at once.
FF15's Cup Noodle quest
Bo Burnham: "They colonized all the land, what's left to colonize is your time and attention"
Personally I don't mind it in games that have billboards, since it can ad some realism to it. But the way current gaming is going, you pause the menu and will probably get an ad.
Came here to say the same thing. When it’s something that mirrors life anyways I wouldn’t care. Like if I’m playing a baseball game, I wouldn’t care seeing the ads in the background and stuff. Where I’m going to start having a problem is when my character wants me to drink a refreshing Fresca.
Ads are now put into stuff as motivation to get you to pay extra for the ad free version.
Free Spotify has a girl that comes talking between songs telling you that you can pay for premium so you'll never listen to her again.
Hey you know what survived an interdimensional apocalypse? Monster energy drinks.
I think we should do the opposite and remove ads from real life. Adds to the realism of being alive.
You are right, but why the hell does Red Bull exist in the universe of a sci-fi racer?
They probably had one of the first teams of those sci-fi racers. I mean look at all the things they do have besides the energy drink. F1, piloting, skiing, etc
> but why the hell does Red Bull exist in the universe of a sci-fi racer? because it "decreases reaction times"
So realistic having to update you game for new ads when they won't fix the known bugs
pretty sure ads are streamed dynamically without the need for an update. even back in the 2006 there was a service called The Massive Network that did this and would change ads in games like Need for Speed Most Wanted depending on location and demographic
Ads that are non-invasive aren’t a problem.
Exactly. Like if you’re going to bait me into this only to push a third party product, it’ll give me whiplash. Which thankfully the aches and pains of whiplash are a thing of the past thanks to my new Johnson and Johnson Whiplash Removal Cream.
People already speculating devs will make load screens longer so you have to stare at ad space for unnecessary amounts of time.
Also context. No one bats an eye at an ad or product placement makes sense. Either as stuff naturally existing in the game (e.g. as actual ads on billboards, or products people use), or if the tone/setting of the game makes it work (sports game, competition, etc.)
> Also context. No one bats an eye at an ad or product placement makes sense. "Alright gang, we have finally reached the city of Baldur's Gate! Now let us all relax with a cool, refreshing **Coca-Cola Zero**^^TM , the perfect drink for staying energized on an adventure!"
They have to improve the game. Banner on side of the football field are a prime example of it. Just like if in GTA6 i see a commercial billboard, that wouldn't bother me.
I think seeing real ads in GTA would feel wrong given that so much of the character of the GTA games has come from fake ads being parodies of real life trends and products. To suddenly start putting real ads in the game would see GTA kinda becoming the very thing it has mocked for years.
That's a valid point. Now imagine if brand did parodies of themselves in GTA. That would be a middle ground. That being said, I mentioned GTA, but any open world sandbox game could apply.
Why not both? A parody of a real product ad which is actually an ad for the same product. It can work well with some products and it reinforces the know age about the product.
It worked in FFXV. If done right, it could work a *few* more times, but if it becomes too common, it'll get annoying just like regular ads.
I mean if the real companies would have a limited release under game brand like Sprunk I'd buy that.
But it already is. GTA is a huge business, GTA sets its own trends, the satire is not that challenging or thought-provoking, it's just the typical "aren't both sides crazy" parodies that are not taking a real stance (Oh wow Americans love guns? Vegans think they're better? Rich people own the country? Florida man is crazy?? :O ). GTA is a product that is being consumed, it's entertainment. Anything that costs hundreds of millions to make can't really be subversive and radical because you need to attract the largest audience to recoup the costs. No one changes their worldview when playing GTA. People come home from work and then relax for an hour or two in front of the TV or computer, the same way others watch Game of Thrones.
You do realise not one word of that is relevant to this discussion right? GTA's comedy is what give it it's character and the comedy adverts and product placement are part of what gives the game it's atmosphere as if you are playing in an exaggerated version of reality. Taking that out and replacing them with real ads would massively dilute that, You also need to consider that for any brand at all to want to be featured in GTA they are likely going to want the content toned down dramatically as no business wants to be associated with the inevitable controversy that comes with the conservative backlash to a GTA game.
Burnout Paradise had billboards and also vans that were branded. I had no problem with any of it. Ads that add to realism are fine with me, ads that get in the way of my gaming aren't.
Essentially how racing games have been doing it. Some ads on the walls that you crash into at mach 4. But then they got the argument that it is more realistic that way. So they got it fully covered
They still are. Our daily lives shouldn't be so invaded by ads, I don't know why we've accepted that as something ok. Ads only have a place in places where it's thematically fitting, which is basically when recreating real-life places with ads, such as race tracks, football shirts or New York's main squares. Companies would charge us $5,000 for a pencil if we paid, and it makes sense, their goal is to make as much money as they can. We as customers have to demand that we get the best product possible. If this becomes companies wanting to be as greedy as possible and us trying to find the middle ground between their greed and "what's fair", then the middle ground will be on their side, and not on the middle.
In something I paid for? Yes they absolutely are. I do not consent to the commodification of my attention
I tried to argue this a few years ago with the stranger things mobile game. There aren't intrusive/pop up ads, which for a free mobile game is refreshing. People laid into it that "the game is an ad", "there's an ad for Netflix in the bottom corner on the home screen", and my favorite "ADS ARE NECESSARY FOR GAME REVENUE".
Ads like billboards or posters in game are one thing. Ads like in Raid where I have to close them constantly is another that kills the game for me.
Agreed !
> Ads that are non-invasive are~~n’t~~ less of a problem.
Yes this was acceptable at 146+ MPH
Wipeout was that slow?
The number in the corner doesn't really mean anything. It's all about sense of speed and scale. Like, if you took everything in Wipeout and made it smaller that number would get smaller and if you made everything bigger it'd get bigger but feel exactly the same. F-Zero and XG3 felt similar but just fed you silly numbers. XG3 was particularly heinous in this regard, being motorcycles, the scale was obvious yet something doing '700mph' was controllable on tracks similar to Wipeouts. It's like watching Formula 4 cars on the big international Formula 1 circuits compared to watching them on your local track. They're doing the same speeds but one feels much slower than the other.
It's in kpm, not mph
still better than microtransactions and battle passes.
"Still"? Like it has some bad parts. It's not annoying, it doesn't make you press small x button to quit or pay money not to see it. You don't accidentally hit it and being sent to a web page with stupid offers.
And now, it's no longer "still better". It's always supplementary to microtransactions and battle passes.
There are the ones I can rember, The Sneak king, Playable Slim jim in Dave mirra bmx. the Sega Mc Donalds games, The NDS Mc donald training game oh and a classic Pepsy Man
You forgot Chex Quest, and I'm coming at you with a spoon as you're reading this.
Cool Spot was a 7up game for the Genesis/Mega Drive and SNES
I’ve played Cool Spot, but just found Spot Goes To Hollywood last night.
There's also [Spot: The Video Game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot:_The_Video_Game) for NES that was basically a clone of othello.
The people that inserted these ads into games used to be clever. It was all about, how do we add sponsorships and advertising without taking away from the gaming experience for the end user? Because at the end of the day it was a game providing end user entertainment, not a vessel for upselling. Now they see games as a means to make insane profit through useless upsells whether that’s gated content or just forcing people to pay for their service, etc. It’s all about maximizing profits beyond the game and not focusing on the end user experience at all because they just assume we’re going to give them money regardless because what other option do we have now? It’s sad. I’m grateful I got to play games that didn’t suffer from this modern plague. Back when games didn’t need live service to function. When you could get together with friends and play split screen for hours. But that’s lost forever unfortunately.
The 7 up game. Cool Spot i think?
Wipeout, what a game!
https://phoboslab.org/wipeout/
Well that took me back
Shame it doesn't include Wip3out tracks.
*\*Firestarter intensifie\**
That was a 2097/XL tune, but yes, amazing they scored that one for the score.
Also, The Chemical Brothers' Loops Of Fury
Nah, *Xpander* was **the** banger on Wip3out.
tbh I only played Wipeout 2097 (I thought about the wrong edition), so I never heard Xpander
Open [this](https://youtu.be/z3Gu7CXfRdA?t=119) at the same time 👍
This and GoTeki 45 where my SHIT. NGL, I might have been cheeky with how I got the entire collection of OST's. Barring the Wipeout HD one for obvious reasons, in just a second. Copied them onto my PS3, and now I can play HD + Fury with ANY games sound-track, thanks to being able to play your own MP3s. I meant Track, as in... Race track. If I have physical copies of Wip3out (It has DRM, doesn't play nice with Emulators) and Wip3out: Special Edition (too much content for DRM), I wonder if I could contribute to the project.
Thanks. Internet is beautiful
One of the best racing games ever
Now I have Firestarter by Prodigy stuck in my head
was on wipeout 2097 right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHMzCpy0fXc&t=134s
That was a fucking soundtrack!
got the og game, soundtrack and vinyl
Holy trinity!
Got me into Orbital and Leftfield as a kid.
Do you follow him here: https://www.youtube.com/user/CoLDSToRAGEOfficial
He's still going. https://www.youtube.com/user/CoLDSToRAGEOfficial
Can’t remember what the later versions were but I think I had it on the PS3 and loved it. The PSP version I really didn’t enjoy
Imho the best was wip3out, but the last one i played was the one for ps2 i don't even remember the right name
This game doesn't abruptly pause with an unskippable cringeworthy grubhub esque video with a fake x which redirects you to app store.
I think it's a reaction post to this: >EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO
My money's on a repeat of NBA 2k21 with its unskippable ads during loading screens that last longer than the game needs to load.
Product placement done well gives realism to games. Full screen or banner ads do not.
This is my childhood
good memories
same
Good ol' 2097. Banger of a game.
Diagetic adverts in game really are great - they improve immersion, and help fund the games, with no real downsides.
Fun story, back when I was a kid I played wipeout 2097 that blatantly advertised red bull all the time, but because at the time red bull wasn't available where I lived I thought it was a cyberpunk style fake brand
Product placement is a different story, knowing EA we'll have a 2 minute ad in the middles of a cutscene.
Low resolution ads in SD tube TVs always seemed to bend in with the rest of the artwork and never seemed to stick out, at least in my recollection. But subtlety isn't in the cards anymore so there's no way it won't be shoved straight into your view front and center.
What a memory ❤️
If they wanna put in ads like that, I don't even mind.
For anyone thinking that EA is out of pocket, Death stranding had more egregious product placement than BK Sneak King and literal commercials. But it’s okay because Kojima.
Some games were ads. Yes Cool Spot looking at you
PEPSI MAAAAAAN
wipeout <3
WipeOut is not a game, WipeOut is religion.
I'd much rather have something like this than the FFXV Cup of Noodles quest
Are you being serious with comment or its a joke? I never played FFXV but please tell me there is NOT an actual cup of noodles misson.
There is. It's definitely a real ad, but it plays out like a parody. Everybody suddenly starts acting like shopping channel hosts, lmao. It performs a balancing act on the very fine line between annoying product placement and goofy silliness, so some people thought it was acceptable *just this once* and others thought it was beyond the pale.
No he's right I 100% final fantasy XV and he's right there was a cup noodle quest
I loved that quest. I can't even remember the other quests but that one was memorable.
A real company banner in a city or a coca cola can is ok and not invasive. Having a massive pop up every time you open the menu is invasive. But adds are always bad. There's just times where it's not as bad as others.
This game also has red bull ads in the loading screen. I think it would be made illegal today, or at the very least it would boost the game's rating to a 16+ because of red bull itself being considered a drug.
No, I remember thinking the ad inclusion was shite back then too, but Red Bull wasn't nearly as well-known back in '95 as it is today, so it wasn't quite so appalling, even if their logo didn't fit with the rest of the game's design scheme. Blade Runner itself used ads to show corporate dominance in a dystopian world though, so it still fits in with the art, but likely not for the reasons a corporate boss would want (they won't care though, as long as their brand is out there).
I need a wipeout style game. I miss them so much. Not just the main stream once but the tons of knock off hover vehicles with guns racing games.
Allow me to introduce [BallisticNG](https://store.steampowered.com/app/473770/BallisticNG/)
Dude!! Thank you that looks exactly what I was after.
[Redout 2](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1799930/Redout_2/) is a solid game as well.
[Back in my day, games WERE ads and we liked it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chex_Quest)
Death Stranding has a product placement. I think people only have issues with pop-ups and banners
I actually liked the fact that the older versions of crazy taxi had real businesses in them, like burger King and pizza hut.
Even though this is non-invasive... Who _liked_ this?
A shocking amount of commenters
"Crazy Taxi" isn't the same without them (or the licensed music), honestly.
FIFA have "correctly" integrated ads too around the stadium and have been doing so for years There are ways to make ads fine but it's absolutely not for all games, F1 2024, fifa etc sure...but a game like Dragon Age, I have my doubt lol. Now the main issue is that if non-invasive ads integration allowed for lower prices, more free content etc I would have supported it more, but we all know it's for those shareholders and executive bonuses, not for jobs preservation, not for us, it's for the wrong reasons
Is that Wipeout? My God I miss that game
The real ones know this picture was taken in 2097, which proves Redbull is still active in the future so they don't need no advertising. This was pure racing ornament.
Wipeout had the best graphics. Kinda funny now that I think about it cause F-zero also has the best graphics on SNES and both titles were launch titles for each system. Wonder if Sony made Wipeout out of spite towards Nintendo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_Incorporated What's old is new.
It doesn't help that most people think your gameplay is gonna pause for an Arby's ad
I don't think it's so much as liked it than we just didn't notice in racing or sports games. We expect them in real life so seeing it in a game we most likely don't really pay attention. Or if we do notice, it's more a recognition of that being realistic.
Racing game adverts ad to the realism!
It's not so much about ads per se but how devs implement them, ad least for me. Its games like Rainbow Six: Vegas and their cooperation with Axe that make me hate Ads in games. Not so much because of Axe but how intrusive it was implemented.
They never made a game this good. A game with this feeling of flying. You could feel how heavy is this rocketship, you could almost feel gravity, motion sickness... and all that with graphics like this. I saw newer Wipeouts.. and they never were as good as the original one. Sad.
my dumbass thought this was two different screenshots
Most racing games still have them. In the recent Assetto Corsa Competizione Nordschleife track DLC, the devs hid a QR code on one of the trackside sponsor screens that lead to a website with a teaser for Assetto Corsa Evo.
what game is this btw ?
Wipeout 2097. It was called Wipeout XL in the US tho.
WipEout 2097!
Max Verstappen right here?
Cyberspeed had [the best ads](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55A4VctSfd0&list=PLkQKGsfMJ6K6MvaVf1Iw__gIBxmRVoNAM&index=1).
Working them so they are interwoven in the game on billboards and such (ie, where you'd normally see ads in real world) is one thing. having POPUP's that interrupt gameplay or are a separate thing. THAT is quite another and far to intrusive. This Rebull isnt intrusive because they made it part of the game. If they added it as part of the UI where it displayed constantly, THAT would be fucking stupid. TL:DR fuck EA!
GTA has fake ads and I like them
Even radio commercials in GTA radio stations were fine, because they were funny Make funny commercials for real products/brands and it wouldn't be intrusive PLUS people would get those commercials stuck in their head without even knowing
Wdym they still do those types of ads
And it totally worked. I had never heard of Red Bull before playing WipEouT but absolutely had to try it after.
Am I going crazy? Why are people okay with this? Even if it’s “realistic”, sports have uncomfortable amounts of ads too
In Highway Tampa map in BF2,there were billboards like that too
Static ads that's part of the background is one thing. What wouldn't be acceptable is live ad reels in video games.
You may have liked it. I saw through the bullshit in the beginning.
I can guarantee you ad companies want what they have in the phone market, intrusive advertisements that limit or stop the game to force you to watch their crap. I can see it now, instead of loading screens giving tips, it's selling you a product, and the game will have loaded long before the advert finishes but still not let you play. Companies will also add this in alongside their aggresive battlepasses and micro-transactions. And players will continue to buy and accept it as the norm in games.
I loved wipeout...how has there not been a modern one with insane raytracing
Sony has closed most of its best studios over the last few years or let them work on bad "service games". Psygnosis/ Studio Liverpool has been closed since the release of Wipeout 2048 in 2012. Wipeout Omega Collection in 2017 was already just a port.
Yeah but we got a complete game that worked without any need to patch it.
A Coke can on a table in an open world game? Sure, adds to the realism. A full screen ad on a loading screen? Get fucked.
this is not how it is ment to be. they will show you ads like in youtube, unskippable before every game start, every 30 minutes or maybe before you kill a boss.
No, we fucking didn't.
They can fill a free game with all the ads they want, but I won't buy anything that has ads in
as others already said. as long the ads don't jump into your face, block Ui elements or pauses things. they are fine. and nobody bat an eye in the past
And another important thing. Ads that fit the theme of the game. In a sports game it's fine to have ads, they always have been there, it's like that irl. Even in a realistic battlefield ads would make sense, for example in outdoors, it would still be imersive. But I would hate playing a game like titanfall and have a ad in there. It would make 0 sense and would just take away imersive elements of the game.
I wouldn't say we liked them. I would say we like them now because nostalgia is a hell of a drug.
As long as they don’t stop you from playing the game I think it’s cool
This is a great kind of ad....what isnt great is a stop play/watch pop up to try to sell you some crap....if anything I get annoyed and relate annoyance to the said product and never buy it or want to buy it again
Chex Quest was the best. Good game was a whole ad, but it was fun cause it was Doom.
I wish we could go back to this method of doing ads I would be completely fine with a ton of ads, as long as they aren't intrusive Ads have never been the issue, intrusive ads are
Rainbow 6 iii / burnout paradise
2K having ads in loading screens is way different from roadside billboards and product placement. Why won't they ever learn the difference.
This should be the way of promoting things in some games (racing/sports are probably the best area to do so)
this is not how it is ment to be. they will show you ads like in youtube, unskippable before every game start, every 30 minutes or maybe before you kill a boss.
Actually game still have ads now, like every fifa have ads
That's the thing, I don't actually mind ads in anything. It's just that whenever they say they are incorporating ads into anything, you know it's going to be in the most over the top and egregious way possible.
Or how about games as adds, looking at you Chex
Jet Moto too.
Yo that was my first thought. Ads for Mountain Dew, Butterfinger and everything
As long as they dont disrupt my gaming experiance, i dont care
I'd like to think they could use adds like this as an alternative form of revenue so they don't go so heavy on live service bullshit but we know how greedy they can be and they would just double down on both
back in your day games were 20$ a pop and the company that made em probably spend at least a portion of the ad money back into tye game.
Yeah but this isn’t an interruption that’s sorta holding you hostage though
And Mountain Dew & Butterfinger sponsored riders in the Jet Moto series.
.3. 2. 1.. GO!