Players of the futuristic multiplayer game (MMORPG) "Anarchy Online" will soon face in-game advertisements from 3rd party products.
As consumers spends less time watching television and more time playing games (as indicated by numerous studies, including one from Nielsen), the game industry is turning its attention to understanding the potential to drive additional revenue from in-game advertising.
Personally i would have thought that people spending less time watching television was healthy, but i guess that doesn't go down too well with these advertisers.
I like the way the CEO of Anarchy-online says:
We know that most gamers want in-game advertisement to heighten the sense of realism
As if it's somehow about keeping the customer satisfied, as opposed to just another way of making more money. The emptiness in his statement makes my ears bleed!
I don't want to see any freakin' in-game advertisements in online games that i play. If Valve ever brought in-game ads into Day of Defeat: Source or Counter Strike: Source, i would shelve them in a heart-beat.
I don't know how the rest of you feel about this but i detest the idea of people trying to hawk there cheesy ware on a game that has little or nothing at all to do with their product.
More info over at gamespot
Discussion >>
Add Igniq.com to your MySpace Friends
