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EA told off for using 360 footage in advert News
Xbox 360 Wii News by Ellie Gibson
The Advertising Standards Authority has put Electronic Arts on the naughty step, branding a recent advert for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 as "misleading".
The ads showed Woods wanging a Wii remote around, but showed Xbox 360 gameplay footage at the same time. A member of the public with quite a lot of time on their hands complained that this was bad and wrong.
In its defence, EA told the ASA that footage of the Wii game "would not be of broadcast quality". It was pointed out that the ad did feature text stating the game was available for multiple formats in a bid to avoid confusion.
"They explained that Wii footage would not be of broadcast quality, and the originating agency had thought it preferable to use the Xbox footage, which was closer to broadcast definition, than to 'up the resolution' of Wii footage to broadcast quality," said the ASA.
However the ASA, which lives for this kind of sh**, upheld the complaint.
"Although we acknowledged that the message 'available on all formats' appeared in the final scene, we considered that viewers would infer from the ad that Tiger Woods was playing the game on a Wii console and the graphics shown behind him were representative of the actual game he was playing," said the watchdog. "Because viewers would not be able to achieve the graphical quality shown in the ad on a Wii console, we concluded that the ad was misleading. Woof."
The ASA ruled that the advert cannot be broadcast again "in its current form". EA is unlikely to receive any tea before heading up the wooden hill to bed this evening.
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the_dudefather
17/12/08 @ 09:49
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'footage of the Wii game "would not be of broadcast quality"'
Glol remember the days of prerendered footage with THIS IS A NOT ACTUAL FOOTAGE plastered on the screen? |
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kangarootoo
17/12/08 @ 09:56
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"would not be of broadcast quality"?
Christ, make of that what you will. There seems to be some suggestion in this article that the complaint was unfounded or an over-reaction. Surely its an open and shut case of an advert being misleading? Does EG editorial not think that sort of thing is important? I'm normally a fan of Ellie's writing, but "However the ASA, which lives for this kind of sh**, upheld the complaint." is the sort of thing a reader might write. Its not really what I would expect from a professional journo. Isn't it supposed to be some sort of matter of professional pride that news is reported without undue editorial bias? If this was just someone's blog it would probably be fine to write in that way, but this is an online magazine which (via the magic of cack handed and heavy weight advertising policy) we are essentially paying for. Sorry if you are hung over or something Ellie. I hope at least a bit of my point is taken in the right spirit. |
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dazrichards
17/12/08 @ 09:58
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Don't understand EG getting a little shirty about this. The advert was deliberate; making the Wii game appear better than it is. Adding that 'disclaimer' at the end saying it is available on multiple formats doesn't make it clear at all.
Pre-rendered footage should be banned from ads but I am dismayed at how many of my friends are pursuaded by these ads even when I point out that there is no gameplay footage in them |
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The_Inquisitor
17/12/08 @ 09:59
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Would not be of broadcast quality? The X-Factor gets away with it on a weekly basis.
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"I remember buying Le Mans 24 Hrs for the Speccy when I was 10 - I was a total noob and didn't realise the screenshots on the back of the box were from the arcade version. I was totally gutted when I got home, put the tape in a 10 minutes later was staring at some yellow graphics."
Exactly, where were The Advertising Standards Authority back then! arcade/C64/Amstrad all used on the back of Speccy games to fool us. The Bastards! Mind you can't blame EA really, the Wii graphics are pretty bad ;) |
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TriggerHippie
17/12/08 @ 10:03
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Well what were they supposed to do? They're trying to sell this to people.
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YobRenoops
17/12/08 @ 10:12
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I don't quite understand why EG are being a bit of an arse with this. Its clearly not right to advertise like this as it sets false expectations (you'll get loads of kids returning it saying it didn't look like the advert!)
The question I've got is, in what way is the Wii version not broadcast quality. If I'm right all UK broadcasts are done at a maximum of 576i resolution so surely the fact that a Wii can out put exactly the same means it should hold up quite well. It's just the advertising firm being idiotic. |
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actionfitz
17/12/08 @ 10:13
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Pwnt.
I agree though, many Wii owners would not take the discliamer at the end 'Appearing on multiple formats' to mean: "Yes Tiger Woods is playing on a Wii and the graphics look ace... but when you buy the game yours will look like shit, because you arent a famous Golfer, and havent got an XBOX 360." pretty much a closed case imo. Do Sony use PS3 footage to advertise game appearing on the PSP? |
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brockenheimer
17/12/08 @ 10:14
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Agreed that the tone of the article is unnecessarily sarcastic. Adverts should not mislead us!
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keyboardmonkey
17/12/08 @ 10:16
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+ billion "Would not be of broadcast quality? The X-Factor gets away with it on a weekly basis."
Can we also include Idols and Big Brother in this please. |
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Not of broadcast quality. Indeed, in the PS2 says no-one ever, ever used in game footage because it wasn't of broadcast quality. Like GTA: San Andreas. Or [insert on of the many that uses ingame fottage from here].
Or Red Steel, or Animal Crossing, or Warioware: Smoothmove, or Mario Kart, or Wii Fit, or Wii Music, or Super Mario Galaxy. They tried to show it, but due to being "not of broadcast quality" looks like that grainy porn footage at the beginning of American Pie. |
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kangarootoo
17/12/08 @ 10:23
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"The ASA might not be the most interesting department in the world, but without them, TV adverts would be utter lie-fests"
Very well put. Its the little things that this which simply fall under the same rule set that prevents companies lying outright about their products. Are we supposed to accept that adverts are allowed to lie just a little bit unchallenged? Methinks someone just has an issue with authority in all its forms. |
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michaelius
17/12/08 @ 10:33
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I wonder what people who bought it and played later at home thought about this :D
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"@kangarootoo. I agree: I dislike the snidey tone of this item. The ASA might not be the most interesting department in the world, but without them, TV adverts would be utter lie-fests. Ellie trying too hard to be funny/contentious/edgy I think."
Hi everyone! Thanks for the comments. I think you're reading a bit much into the way Ellie's written it. She and I certainly don't regard the ASA as a bunch of time-wasters, and we certainly do think misleading adverts are a bad thing. The "lives for this kind of sh**" thing isn't a dig at the ASA. Sorry if it came over poorly. |
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FatsoJetson
17/12/08 @ 11:10
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As someone who works in the marketing press, I have to say Mugwum that this was the funniest ASA-related story I have ever read - wish we could get away with adopting the same tone. No need to apologise to this reader. Thanks for the morning chuckle.
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kinky_mong
17/12/08 @ 11:30
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All computer game footage is CGI ;)
I was about to say this but in a much more sarcastic way, along the lines of "Yes because the actual games are 100% hand drawn images". Has anyone else noticed that advert for the new Crash and Spyro games which has "Xbox 360 footage shown" in tiny letters during the advert yet shows only the Wii boxes at the end of the advert? Cynical. |
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GamesConnoisseur
17/12/08 @ 11:44
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Applauds ASA as I m tired of misleading adverts that sell what is actually not so.... like Sony using PGR3 car models in their 'advert' for GT! Of course a sly reference to Sony but all publishers are guilty to some degree of egging up their products to be better than it actually is.
Hell they are only trying to maximise their sales understandbly,just not at our expenses thank you, of buying something that we was misled to think was a different thing! Bad enough without using fake videos/photos. |
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TheMoonRat
17/12/08 @ 11:46
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Have you also noticed the iphone ad has now changed; at the end it shows "sequence shorterned"; as doing all the things it shows in the add takes takes 3 times longer to do in reality
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kangarootoo
17/12/08 @ 12:24
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@Mugwum
Always great to see you guys reading our oft pointless comments, and responding to our thoughts about the site. Thanks for the confirmation, consider it put to bed :) |
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Vertical Stand
17/12/08 @ 12:50
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It does seem to me that the way in which all games are advertised on television needs to be reviewed, as others have mentioned this isn't an isolated case, and it seems companies get away with quite a lot, I mean even with Mirror's Edge, the footage used in the advert is similar in style to what you get in the game, but appears to be custom made pre-rendered and smoothed up piece compared to the game itself.
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@TheMoonRat: yeah I noticed that in the iPhone advert the first time I saw it.
The advert tries to imply that the features are quick and simple to use with only a few steps, and then in the fineprint its says that steps were taken out in the demonstration. Not so quick and simple then is it!
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 17/12/08 @ 13:40
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"You are talking about PRE-RENDERED footage."
I'm aware it used pre-rendered footage for the bathysphere approach to Rapture, but honestly? The CG in game linked so seamelssly to the actual generated-by-360 graphics I spend ten seconds after the plane crash waiting for the cutscene to end. "appears to be custom made pre-rendered and smoothed up piece compared to the game itself." Twas the 360 version I think. |
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BartonFink
17/12/08 @ 14:28
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"Not of broadcast quality" - GLOL
Christ this should be put on every single Nintendo advert - the majority of them do this shit all the time. Maybe they should start each ad with "Not representative of actual gameplay, this will actually look quite shit" |
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I think it should be mandatory to use non-playable real-time footage done with the game engine,cuts from the in-game cutscenes,and mix it with some in-game action,like the MGS4 ad.
The consoles graphics already look good enough to rival PS2-era CGI,Wii excluded.Why bother with CGI when it wouldn't look much better and would be misleading? |
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Collymilad
17/12/08 @ 16:52
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"It was pointed out that the ad did feature text stating the game was available for multiple formats in a bid to avoid confusion."
I love the way kids can't get away with saying their dog ate their homework, yet Corporations can get away with blatently acting dumb and taking the piss. If they had really wanted to avoid confusion and not just half heartedly cover their own arses, they would have had something like this in the ad "FOOTAGE FROM XBOX 360 VERSION" Wasn't so hard was it now? |
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