TV Style Ads in Console Games? No thanks.

[owsf2000]

An article over on Kotaku talks about a push to bring TV styled commercials in console games.

The tech would basically be licensed out to game devs to use. Instead of being something to show players in the middle of a game, it'll be something that players would choose to view to get a "reward".

So expect essentially more microtransactions which will get shittier and shittier. Eventually they'll get down to a point where you'll get a tiny bit of in-game currency to buy (eventually after 1000 ads) some cosmetic item. I give them 5 years to get to that point.

Either way they'll add more and more of them and do more and more to force players to watch them.

I can just see an RPG where all the treasure chests are locked - and keys are only given when you watch X ads. I could further see them turning the keys given randomized. Will you get a bronze, silver, gold, or platinum key? They'll match the chests so hopefully you watch enough ads!

It's likely going to be at least 2-3 years before I bother looking at buying a PS5, so we'll see how bad it gets by then. It'll probably make my decision easy.

Comments

[kane_magus]

This is yet another piece of egregious dogshit that has been in mobile games for years which is now spreading to infect/infest other platforms. And it'll probably end up being even worse than you think.

With mobile games, at least some of the few I've played, it started out being similar to what you said above, with there being a tiny balloon that would pop up in the top corner of the screen that you could click or ignore if you wanted to, which if you clicked it would play a 15-60+ second, full screen ad for some random shit that had nothing to do with the game (usually it was an ad for another game or app on Google Play), after which you'd get some insignificant bauble like, for example, a minuscule amount of simoleons in The Sims FreePlay (or an even more infinitesimal amount of the other, shittier Lifestyle Points or Social Points, i.e. the "special" in-game currencies they introduced specifically for the mobile game that you otherwise had to buy with IRL money, and behind which most of the game was severely pay-walled).

However, after only a few days of playing the game (e.g. The Sims FreePlay, again), it very quickly became 15-60+ second, full screen ads that randomly played of their own volition without you having any choice in the matter whatsoever, every five minutes or less, and you got exactly jack shit and fuck all for being forced to watch them (which is, you know, the way it already was by default in most other mobile games). Needless to say, that was the point where I stopped playing The Sims FreePlay altogether, same as I did with any and every other mobile game that I tried that did that shit, which was the vast majority of them. And as I said, most of them didn't even bother with that cutesy, disingenuous "click and watch the ad if you want to" stuff at all. And, of course, the whole "special in-game currency you otherwise have to buy with IRL money and behind which most of the game is severely pay-walled" shit was also still there, obviously, completely irrespective of and unaffected by any ads you are forced to watch in that manner. I predict that it will almost assuredly become just like this with console games as well, once this "optional" horseshit infests/infects them.

For me, this kind of in-game advertising will simply become yet another thing that I check for prior to buying a game. Does your game require me to be online 24/7 even for a solo, singleplayer experience? Then fuck off; you don't get my money. Has most of your game been chopped out to be sold separately as DLC? Then fuck off; you don't get my money. Does your game contain Denuvo or some other kind of draconian DRM malware? Then fuck off; you don't get my money. Does your game contain loot boxes or other such "surprise mechanics"? Then fuck off; you don't get my money. Does your game contain in-game advertising like what is described above? Then fuck off; you don't get my money.

Sadly, frustratingly, infuriatingly, as has been the case with every other goddamned fucking shitty thing that has ever been shat out by the video game industry over the past few decades, the worst part about this dogshit is that far too many other gamers are going to willingly suck this shit down from the sewer pipe surgically attached to their lips, deem it just wonderful, ask for seconds, and then proceed to try to gaslight everyone else with their fanboyism/reputation management drone-ism about just how great and worthwhile and necessary it is that this dogshit has been introduced into video games.

[owsf2000]

Yeah, I didn't bother predicting going to the point of forced ads just to let you play the game because at the end of the day we're still talking console games rather than cheap/free mobile games.

It would -not- go over well with even the most loyal of the shills if their 80-100 dollar console game was forcing ads just for the right to continue playing it. That would result in multiple class action lawsuits imo. One for every game that every publisher attempts to get that bad. That's the reason why they're working on this special tech to "convince" players to watch the ads.

I can totally see them going further than what I predict though. And I wonder if they'll try to force players to watch an ad to unlock game modes - once per day after starting the game up.

We could do a freaking raffle on predicting this shit I think... but I suspect I'll stop playing games before I get to setting one up.

[kane_magus]

I was just thinking of cable TV, which was pitched as "TV without commercials" when it first started up (despite recent attempts to rewrite history to try to say that that was never the case, which will probably also happen concerning commercials in video games 50 years from now or whatever). No commercials because one pays for it, as opposed to free, over-the-air TV with commercials. But now, there are commercials out the wazoo even on cable TV. And while a few grumble about it, and some even "cut the cord" to get away from it, most just blithely continue to pay for commercial-infested cable without a care in the world. Because it's what they're used to. And the streaming shit like Hulu or whatever that lots of people are "cutting the cord" to switch to, that shit has ads now, too, even though that's also something they're already paying for. And even with Netflix, which still boasts no commercials (for now), they get around not having commercials by having egregious product placement in its shows. (See also: video games.)

Sort of like how video gamers just blithely continue to buy DRM/DLC/always online/"surprise mechanics"-infested video games without a care in the world. Because it's what they're used to. If/when forced commercials in console games ever becomes the "norm," that trend will most assuredly continue. And even before it just becomes generally accepted, the shills will be like "Well, it's already like that in mobile games, is it really so bad in console games, too? Think of the poor, pitiful, money-starved developers/publishers. They have to feed their kids too, don't they?" or some shit, just like they always do. And eventually, everyone will just... accept it. Sames as with all the other dogshit.

(And if you think about it, some games already force you to watch "ads" when the games start up, via the too-often unskippable company logo screens that sometimes take up to a minute or more to get through, every single time the game is started up. That's not exactly the same thing, of course, but it goes to show that they already don't care about inconveniencing end users to shove company logos down their throats. It's to the point now where games like Lair of the Clockwork God are even parodying it by having logos run forever, until you finally click a button to move on to the game proper.)