APB to run adverts over voice chat

By Oli Welsh Published 29 June, 2010

Pay an extra fee to disable them.

Realtime Worlds' online crime game APB will run advertisements over its voice chat service, with users having the option to pay an additional fee to disable them.

Players will hear a short audio ad no more frequently than once every three hours, according to Realtime's community team, and only when first entering a new district, so gameplay is undisturbed.

Alternatively, you'll be able to pay extra for a service called VOIP Premium, which will remove the ads for 30, 90 or 180 days. The pricing of VOIP Premium has not been revealed.

The VOIP Premium option was discovered by a user of the APB forums, later picked up on by Massively.

APB is built around a novel pay-as-you-go business model that sees players paying for hours of game time (the game comes with 50 hours included as part of the standard retail package). You'll also be able to subscribe to unlimited game time packages, or trade in-game currency for game time.

APB launches in North America today, across Europe on Thursday and in the UK on Friday. Look out for our review on Friday morning, after we've taken it out for a thorough spin on live servers. Plenty more info at the APB gamepage.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • el_pollo_diablo #1 2 years ago

    Wow, that'll be quite annoying. Good work greedy publishers!

  • the_dudefather #2 2 years ago

    'Players will hear a short audio ad no more frequently than once every three hours, according to Realtime's community team, and only when first entering a new district, so gameplay is undisturbed. '

    yeah, the ads are about 3 seconds long, when you enter a district

    eidt: not directed at el_pollo_diablo
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/10 @ 08:54

  • BillPoon #3 2 years ago

    Ho ho, great idea there, I'm sure that'll have the customers running towards APB.

  • menage #4 2 years ago

    Screw that shit. 3 hours now, 15 minute blocks in the future.
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/10 @ 08:55

  • Pastici #5 2 years ago

    One advert every three hours? Hardly annoying is it? Sly yes, annoying no.

  • MiniAmin #6 2 years ago

    "Webuyanycar.com Webuyanycar.com ANYANYANYANY webuycaranycar.commmmm"

    *Smashes PC*

  • FooAtari #7 2 years ago

    One advert every three hours? Hardly annoying is it? Sly yes, annoying no.

    As menage said, this will just be the beginning if the dev/publishers are allowed to get away with it...

  • Pastici #8 2 years ago

    It's been happening for years, they're just trying out audio now. I've been playing lots of Burnout Paradise recently and the advertising in that is a bit mental.

  • jumpdeveraux #9 2 years ago

    How long before the first pull of the trigger launches a banner ad from your gun but you can pay to disable it so a bullet comes it...

    *dons tin foil hat and opens cupboard under the stairs...*

  • wayne040576 #10 2 years ago

    Why over voice chat?
    If they did it through the in game car radios for example it might at least add to the immersion.

  • photoboy #11 2 years ago

    Pay as you go? I give the game 6 months.

  • jmcflash #12 2 years ago

    Taken from the steam forums

    "You will receive a short audio ad once every 3 hours. HOWEVER ads will only be heard when first entering a district.

    So for example:

    1) You start up the game and enter the social district.
    2) You will hear a short audio ad.
    3 You stay in social for 2 hours and then switch to an action district.
    4) Upon entering the action district you will NOT hear an ad.
    5) You play in the action district for 5 hours and do not hear any ads.
    6) You exit the game.
    7) You start up the game at a later time and enter a district.
    8) You will hear a short audio ad. "

    Tbh, it's really not that bad.

  • BraveArse #13 2 years ago

    Um... skype?

  • pacifika #14 2 years ago

    Should be fine. People are generally haopy with Spotify ads and they're a lot more frequent. And not just at the start of a listening session.
    Edited by 2 at 29/06/10 @ 09:24

  • twoism #15 2 years ago

    They should have just built radio stations in cars, and maybe social areas, where ads would at the very least be in context.

  • mingster #16 2 years ago

    This game is gonna force the developer into liquidation.

  • Gurgeh #17 2 years ago

    This would be the thin end of a wedge; as time went by the ads would get longer and longer. Fortunately APB won't be around long enough for that to happen, unless there's dramatically more content than in the beta.

  • davisorle #18 2 years ago

    Are they freakin kidding me? A game which I didn't like so much that I dropped the beta so fast like in no other? I wouldn't play it for free so in order to go through that with ads Id have to be paid for and not the other way around -.-

    Anyhow, Its a matter of opinion. The game might apeal to some or even many even though I didn't like it a bit. And thinking all the kiddos wanting to be ganstass will ruin itself the game's online community. But the whole "pay an extra sub to not be hearing ads in our MMO" is plain retarded.

  • Eraysor #19 2 years ago

    Hopefully it'll go the same way of Global Agenda's phantasmal subscription fees.

  • FooAtari #20 2 years ago

    "Should be fine. People are generally haopy with Spotify ads and they're a lot more frequent. And not just at the start of a listening session."

    But thats between songs, not during them. And if I remember thats only in the free version of Spotify, if you pay their is no ads. Is APB going to be free?

    This just seems to obtrusive to me. Ads on billboards in games i can accept. Ads during in game radio is just about acceptable, at least you can argue it's realistic. But when something buts into the game in this way it's going beyond what is acceptable IMO, especially when paying £30 - 40 for the game...

    Never ceases to amaze what people are willing to accept...
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/10 @ 11:54

  • Spekingur #21 2 years ago

    So it's basically like adverts on the radio?
    *shrug*
    Why not?

    I'm not against ads if they are intelligently put in a game.
    Having a Coca Cola billboard and then hearing a Pepsi ad on the radio in-game just makes it more "real", I guess. All depends on the game you are playing though.

  • sneetch #22 2 years ago

    @FooAtari
    This just seems to obtrusive to me. Ads on billboards in games i can accept. Ads during in game radio is just about acceptable, at least you can argue it's realistic. But when something buts into the game in this way it's going beyond what is acceptable IMO, especially when paying £30 - 40 for the game...

    Never ceases to amaze what people are willing to accept...

    The ads play when you enter a zone, never while you're in one and therefore never in the thick of action. Your game purchase won't keep paying for the VOIP servers.

    Never ceases to amaze me what people consider unacceptable (myself included at times :) ).

    Edit: On the other hand, you are paying to play the game, the VOIP is built into the game, so that fee should cover the VOIP and you shouldn't be advertised at in this kind of direct manner. Billboards and radio ads sure, I couldn't care less about those but I see your point that this can be considered a step too far.
    Edited by 2 at 29/06/10 @ 13:53

  • actionfitz #23 2 years ago

    well seeing as most MMO's have thier Text chat 'interrupted' every farts end with:

    "HELLO FRIEND COME BUY OUR WOW GOLDS GOING CHEAP!!!
    JUST VIST WWW.DODGYWEBSITE.SOMETHING
    HELLO FRIEND COME BUY OUR WOW GOLDS GOING CHEAP!!!
    JUST VIST WWW.DODGYWEBSITE.SOMETHING
    HELLO FRIEND COME BUY OUR WOW GOLDS GOING CHEAP!!!
    JUST VIST WWW.DODGYWEBSITE.SOMETHING"

    etc etc.

    a few secs when swapping districts isnt too painful, would have been better if they just just put the adds on the loading screens though... I can see it would be annoying if the ad plays in the middle of you trying to hold a conversation.

    my main concern is that apparently we wont be able to disable in game voice chat and use something like teamspeak3 or ventrillo... seeing as that would be disabling ads and cost money... :/

  • Rubarack #24 2 years ago

    This is already pay to play for a standard multiplayer, isn't ads on top taking the piss?

  • Kami #25 2 years ago

    Indeed, you're already paying a subscription fee - charging to remove ads on top of a sub fee is taking the piss. I am all for subscriptions in gaming (Do you have a car? A mobile phone? Not so different in reality...) but you have to temper that with common sense.

    APB is set in a modern-day city so they could so easily have gotten away with billboard ads in-game, or brief flashes on the in-game TV's or stuff like that. Subtle. Clever. Intelligent. This just seems WAAAAAAAAAY too in-your-face.

    edit; And one final thing - if I've learned anything from years of playing games online - people still prefer to use Teamspeak and Ventrilo for their communication needs. Why APB thinks it's going to be any different is beyond me...
    Edited by 1 at 29/06/10 @ 12:54

  • Alatair #26 2 years ago

    That's just disgusting.

  • el_pollo_diablo #27 2 years ago

    Ads in games really really annoy me, 'tastefully' inserted or otherwise.

    I'm fine with them on ITV because ITV doesn't charge me for watching their output.
    I'm not fine with them when I've paid £40 for a game already.

    Sorry and all that, but I think it's greed, pure and simple.

  • Kami #28 2 years ago

    CtrlAltDel and I share a similar train of thought

    You pay for an MMO, you have to understand you've paid for the development costs and a free month of play. Your sub isn't their angle of greed, and nor is supplementing in-game advertising - that pays for server costs, continued content development, hiring new staff and various other things to keep your game ticking over.

    However, for this to work, you have to be clever with the advertising. A modern-day world could so easily just be littered with billboards and brief snippets of TV commercials as you pass an electronics store etc, but you shouldn't club people over the head with it. See Devil May Cry 2 - a prime example of clubbing you over the noggin with branding, so explicit they even shout about it ON THE BLOODY COVER OF THE GAME ITSELF!

    But none of this is bad. Sponsorship deals and clever advertising can help allieviate the costs of development - MMO's are getting more sophisticated and expensive, and players themselves are spread across dozens of titles, so the usual £10 sub fee is starting to look painfully thin - how do you keep a new MMO running in a market as expansive as it is and with so many rivals, with small to medium sized playerbases? You have to improvise, and as long as the advertising is done with some intelligence and dignity, then I don't see it as bad. I see it as another way for online games to survive in an increasingly expensive arena.

    Just don't force it like this... it doesn't work. People are smarter than that and, as I said, the reality is most people use Vent and TS anyway so the in-game VOIP isn't likely to get that much use anyway for it to be worth anything to advertisers. And this is hardly good press for a brand-new IP...

  • jumpdeveraux #29 2 years ago

    Just thinking this through further I can't see how this actually proves to be a compelling channel for advertisers and thus how it could generate a significant revenue stream for the developer/publisher (unless they plan on making ads much more frequent...)

    * You'd need to profile every subscriber so that you could guarantee the advertiser the type of end user they are hitting
    * You'd need to regionalise the advertising unless you only promote international "superbrands" like Nike or Coke
    * You'd need to demonstrate a significant user population the ad would reach (or why advertise via that channel)
    * As an ad is only played once every 3 hours and let's assume the demographic of players is either at school or has a job so plays mostly in the evenings you'd be lucky if they heard 2 ads a night (and ppl don't play 7 days a week either) so unless you are the only advertiser using the channel you barely get any airtime with the customer under this model

    Seems like a very poor channel to market hence as an advertiser I wouldn't pay much at all to use it unless the model gets changed (billboards... splashscreens) and the product needs to be a success as well with a growing mass of users.

    Puzzling.

  • AliRay #30 2 years ago

    From what I've already heard about the reaction to the beta and the review embargo fiasco, this isn't really a big deal.

    It's just a waste of the advertisers' money.

  • Xensor #31 2 years ago

    APB is a shockingly poor game so anyway they can to cream some cash back before it all goes belly up is hardly surprising no matter how devious.

  • insincere_dave #32 2 years ago

    It pains me to say it but I can see at least 50% of Realtime Worlds' workforce being made redundant by Xmas. A real shame because I don't want to see these high tech jobs disappearing from the local economy but Realtime has been built on the historical successes of DMA design without decent scrutiny into how well equipped Dave Jones is to take on this kind of money pit venture.

    I really hope to be proven massively wrong about this.
    Edited by 3 at 29/06/10 @ 19:10

  • lucifonz #33 2 years ago

    The VOIP is actually super good quality, top notch stuff. So an advert every few hours really really isn't going to bother you, and if it does then paying to remove it is apparently super cheap like 50p-£1 or something like that. Small price to pay considering the quality of the voice chat and how much it'd cost you to get a chat server in comparison.

  • Sunyavadin #34 2 years ago

    Or players could do what we always do on any game since they started adding ingame voice chat -

    mute it and continue using our own well established clan ventrilo servers.
    Edited by 2 at 29/06/10 @ 22:59

  • Miths #35 2 years ago

    I noticed it's available on Steam for head start play. I regularly jump on just about anything that sounds somewhat interesting :), but just about everything I've read about and seen of this game so far - including one immensely underwhelming night in beta a couple of months ago (tried again the following weekend, but the game client kept crashing during loading) - suggests it's a pretty bad game.

    I think this is going to be one of the rare times where I'll actually rely on reviews (plural) to tell me whether my impression might be wrong, so I hope at least a few of those will turn up soon.