"User experience will come first"

By Robert Purchese Published 20 March, 2007

Google on in-game ads plan.

Google has told Eurogamer that in-game advertising could add another layer of realism to many games, by providing relevant, targeted advertising content - such as characters drinking from real Coke cans, entering real retail outlets, or seeing real posters and billboards in their virtual worlds.

"As with all things we do, the user experience will come first," a spokesperson for Google told us. "If done right, in-game advertising can add to the overall gaming experience by providing relevant, targeted advertising content."

"In fact, in many genres, in-game advertising can add to the realism of the game enhancing the overall user experience."

The Internet giant was speaking in the aftermath of its acquisition of in-game advertising firm Adscape Media - for a rumoured US$ 23 million (EUR 17.5m). Google hopes this new technology and know-how will help offer advertisers and publishers new solutions and opportunities for their products.

However, we weren't able to find out what those products would be, as Google remained tight-lipped on which games and publishers it's working with, as well as the future direction for the company and in-game advertising.

Head over to the Adscape Media site for more answers.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (52) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • skillian #1 5 years ago

    Ugh.

  • Jandurin #2 5 years ago

    Google is going to gimmick games with user-oriented ads designed to make us feel more at home?

    *grunts*
    Edited by 1 at 20/03/07 @ 14:41

  • Fl0yd #3 5 years ago

    Only a matter of time before we're all playing splinter sell.

  • bushwod #4 5 years ago

    ...and how's that going to work in games set in a fantasy/Sci-Fi/cartoon universe???

  • Mudo #5 5 years ago

    Real ads would be good, and certainly would add another layer of realism. Just something as simple as making the cans lying around Coca-Cola brand instead of generic-coke would be cool, and it would add just slightly to the immersion.
    Obviously the advertisements would have to be relevant, and would have to blend into the game's setting. But that's what they plan to do, so there's no worry of finding coke cans in hyrule.

  • bauhaus #6 5 years ago

    What do google know about user experiance?!?

    After knackering there own search engine with shitty Kelkoo and PPC ads?!?

  • Steroyd #7 5 years ago

    As long as it isn't intrusive like when I'm trying to watch something off Eurogamer TV I'm not really bothered.

    Want to watch Motostorm behind the scenes let's just slip in a Crackdown Trailer for 30 seconds before the video starts.

    Want to watch that Halo teaser don't mind if we shove the resistance advert in your face before you do.

    ugh!!

  • skillian #8 5 years ago

    I have never experienced a more cringeworthy moment in videogames than seeing Sam Fisher munching on Wrigley's Airwaves before assaulting a terrorist stronghold.

    I think that incident has scared me off in-game advertising for life...

  • jebus #9 5 years ago

    @bushwood

    See Cool Spot and Wipeout

  • rock27gr #10 5 years ago

    I hope this type of advertising is only used in a limited number of games. I would hate playing the next GTA say, only to have all the humor products and stores removed and replaced by Starbucks.

  • bunglebonce #11 5 years ago

    I thought it was done quite tastefully in Wipeout 2097, I wouldn't have any problems with advertising like that in other games... if it kept game pricing down!

    /stares coldly at 360 titles on the high street

  • mattigan #12 5 years ago

    I thought that the ads in Crackdown were cool, as long as they are roughly matched to the game they are in then it will be fine, I mean, Royal Navy and 300 (the film) ads sort of fit in with the Crackdown 'macho' theme. But Nivea for men in R6Vegas Don't


    If you get my drift?

  • Fab4 #13 5 years ago

    " I can't wait to see an FPS where one level involves escaping from a swarm of zombies by leaping into a conveniently-placed PC World, spending 30 minutes looking at all their bargains, and then being allowed to walk out again and return to killing zombies..."

    And getting confused between the zombies and PC World's staff ;) :)

  • The-Bodybuilder #14 5 years ago

    It could work, but it needs to match.

    Sort of like seeing men's cosmetics, or tampax products in j-rpgs. It has to the game. :)

    On the other hand, I can't imagine playing gears, to see one of the locust scream out "MASTICATION FOR THE NATION".

  • trevd72 #15 5 years ago

    i agree with google!!!
    Edited by 1 at 20/03/07 @ 15:10

  • mostly_harmless #16 5 years ago

    I hope someone releases a new Blade Runner game with this feature...

  • reality_cheque #17 5 years ago

    @mattigan: surely the running, jumping climbing trees brigade need Nivea more than the rest of us? :)

    Although Clarins > Nivea.

  • Darren #18 5 years ago

    As long as I don't have to sit and watch adverts in game then I've nothing against ingame advertising at all as, if done properly, it adds to the realism and can easily be ignored just as TV and magazine adverts can be. I always found it odd when people complained about the self-advertising in EA games like Burnout 3... although I noticed it, it was real corner of the eye stuff as I find it pretty easy to ignore adverts when I want to and take note of them when I need to! ;)

  • Razzajazz #19 5 years ago

    It can add immersion, however sometimes it's just shit. Like running around in Crackdown, supposedly some city of the future, and seeing adverts for 'The All-New 2008 Dodge' kills the realism just a smidge.

  • Tyronne #20 5 years ago

    Noooo no no nooooooo...I play games to get away from everyday life...fuck sake is there no escape aside from death from bloody advertising.

  • Aria #21 5 years ago

    @Darren
    That's exactly what I was going to say! I agree with you 100%!

  • SomaticSense #22 5 years ago

    I couldn't give a shit as long as my gaming isn't interrupted by a bloody McDonalds ad or the latest Peugeot ad or something.

    But I'll also be pissed off if I have to sit through ads while waiting for the game to load up (like a worrying amount of DVDs have started doing), or during a load screen thus completely destroying any sense of involvement.

    If it amounts to Splinter Cell-style packets of gum placed randomly, or billboards in racing games (as long as it fits the premise, unlike the 'new for 2007' Dodge that is in the 'set far in the future' Crackdown) then I couldn't care less.

  • SomaticSense #23 5 years ago

    rock27gr - "I hope this type of advertising is only used in a limited number of games. I would hate playing the next GTA say, only to have all the humor products and stores removed and replaced by Starbucks."

    Not seen the GTA4 trailer yet have you?







    Hehehe, just kidding ;)
    Edited by 1 at 20/03/07 @ 15:55

  • Chtulie #24 5 years ago

    I had expected this sort of thing to happen before google sold it's users to totalitarian goverments. Not after.

    Those rules google is supposed to live by, that made them so succesful. By now it's kinda a parallel to Animal Farm, isn't it?

  • jellyhead #25 5 years ago

    Someone will release "AdBlocker for gaming" i'm sure of it, bloody hope so anyway or just block the url the ads come from in your firewall. Depends on how they're integrated into the game really but if they get ads from a specified area it shouldn't be too difficult to block that portion of the traffic. Might fubar the game though you could set up a proxy redirector so when it tries to contact the ad server it's redirected to your local web server and you give it an image instead.

    Plenty of room for the hackers to play with this i hope. :)
    Edited by 1 at 20/03/07 @ 16:03

  • Lemming81 #26 5 years ago

    This is so awful. It's not as if games companies aren't making any money and need the extra income from advertising is it?

  • Skooch #27 5 years ago

    Playing Crackdown online recently was quite an odd experience; the constant 'Join the Royal Navy' ads was a bit weird and certainly jarred me out of my gameplay experience. I also thought it was a little disconcerting that the Navy are advertising in a genetically-modified-superhero-agent-destroys-crime-empire type game, almost suggesting the two are closely linked.

    I think it is all to do with getting ads to blend into the game; billboards at football grounds, boarding at race tracks etc. However, I fear it get more and more in-your-face as advertisers try to grab your attention, a bit like the Navy ads where every corner you turn is another bloody billboard...

  • scowat #28 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 16:41:01 08-02-2012

  • el_pollo_diablo #29 5 years ago

    "can add to the overall gaming experience"

    This is, quite frankly, a complete lie. And they know it.

  • AcidSnake #30 5 years ago

    Fry: That's awful, it's like brainwashing.
    Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?
    Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams, only on TV and radio...and in magazines. And movies. And at ballgames, on buses, and milk cartons and t-shirts and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree!

    Time to add videogames to that list then...

  • RexRunti #31 5 years ago

    Don't be evil!

    Anyway, I think the ads in Rainbow 6 worked, likewise driving and football games. What I don't want is the situation we have with modern movies where they only deal with one company... the number of Sony gadgets in bond is silly also why the hell isn't Bumblebee/Goldbug a VW beetle in the new Transformers movie? You never see a Pepsi can and a coke can in the same movie either.

    For advertising to work in games it has to be representative of real world, or rather the game's world, not advertising purely aimed at the gamer.

    There has been adverts in games for years e.g. Zool and chupachups... or was it Polos is a particularly bad example. The way the PC version of Syndicate Wars advertised Ghost in the Shell was fine as the advert was done from a futuristic perspective it talked about seeing/owning a piece of late twentieth centuary cult culture. They even added a few other fake adverts so it didn't seem like it was the only one.

  • ruttyboy #32 5 years ago

    No, I think you'll find "User experience will come first" was the complete lie.

    There is one case where advertising works and that is contempory sports games.
    Edited by 1 at 20/03/07 @ 16:52

  • KingKongBassett #33 5 years ago

    Hands up who remembers when Google did good things.

  • bonker #34 5 years ago

    ""can add to the overall gaming experience"

    This is, quite frankly, a complete lie. And they know it. "

    Absolutely and I can't think of anything more likely to de-immerse me from a game.

    Horrid.

  • twinbee #35 5 years ago

    So publishers get extra money and we get to pay the same price for the game...

  • ruckus #36 5 years ago

    'User experience will come first' - bollox, it sometimes isn't even a priority in games as it is nevermind in-game advertising.

  • tomservo #37 5 years ago

    1. aren't games about escaping reality?

    2. if there are ads the prices MUST go down, or the quality up (ha ha EA)
    Edited by 2 at 20/03/07 @ 17:07

  • Nova5lag #38 5 years ago

    yep well we all knew it was coming. Mars advert written in the stars in Mario G anyone? haha

  • smelly #39 5 years ago

    Stick that up your arse.

  • Azazel #40 5 years ago

    Aaah marketing... the ruination of all things good.

  • Tyronne #41 5 years ago

    If they are going to place ads in games I want something from it , be it a reduced cost or free expansions....ads for bugger all benefit to me...they can go bugger off.

  • jonsaan #42 5 years ago

    I hadn't even noticed the adverts in Crackdown that people have mentioned. I guess that shows how well they work eh?

  • dredd97 #43 5 years ago

    it's gonna be a sad day for gamers everywhere...

    goodbye RPG and fantasy MMO because if advertisers can't sell ad space in those games, they'll make sure games like that don't get made...

    I hope people realize that this could signal the death of whole gaming genres, because the advertisers are about to take over the video games market and it's gonna be even more saturated with sports title and racing games... good bye GTA type games because the ad men aren't going to let your character blow up a McDonalds or starbucks in any game they'll advertise in....

    Google are trying to paint it as a 'brilliantly cool idea' when all it boils down to is forced advertising in games designed to deliver the advert, the gameplay can go to hell in a handcart just as long as the advert delivery system works....

    man I'd depressed about this now...

  • ruttyboy #44 5 years ago

    To those who think this will lead to a decrease in certain genres of games in favour of others, I have a question.

    Are you fucking stupid?

    Do you actuallly *believe* that attention will be paid to whether an advert is 'suitable' or not? Have people still not learned to see through bullshit statements like this? Have there not been enough examples!? Before long it's gonna be "Middle Earth Pepsi, Elves swear by it!" all over the fucking shop.

  • Freek #45 5 years ago

    I woulden't putt much stock in what Google claims these days, that whole "do no evil" thing whent out the window pretty quickly when they went to China.

  • Maledictus010 #46 5 years ago

    Someone thought up tv. That was nice until the time came along that ads filled the better part of the content that was aired.
    Then internet came along. That too was nice until popups and spam made it close to unusable at times.
    Now there's games...

  • Jandurin #47 5 years ago

    "Now there's games..."

    Where's my tivo for games?

  • YourMessageHere #48 5 years ago

    I was originally of the opinion that the ads in BF2142 were unlikely to be of any significance. That was when they were just placeholder ads for in-game vehicles. Now that they're all Intel ads for actual real things, I totally hate them. If that's their idea of relevant I'd hate to think what they've rejected. Every time I see one, its "hello, you are playing a game!" all over again.

  • frag.uk #49 5 years ago

    Damned capitalism. If we all lived in a TRUE commuist society [not Red Communist Joe Vs good ol' Uncle Sam], I suspect we'd have less need for advertising for some reason . . . oh, and we'd all be a lot happier . . .

    No, I'm not on the PLA payroll.

  • el_pollo_diablo #50 5 years ago

    ***** COMPETITION TIME *****

    Question: What's the most insidious, invasive or just plain bizarre in game advertising you've ever witnessed?

    I recall F.E.A.R brimming with adverts for snazzy Alienware PCs. Only the PCs in the game didn't look that much like snazzy Alienware ones.

  • Lov3 #51 5 years ago

    Hey, remember when you were watching Harry Potter, and Harry waved his wand and made that can of Coca-Cola appear? And remember when you were reading Lord of the Rings for the first time, and Arwyn made that big speech about how all her clothes came from Top Shop? Oh yeah, and remember the first time you listened to the Beatles, and they had that crazy song about Sony's top quality record players? No? Then why is this crap going on in video games?!

  • agparrot #52 5 years ago

    Drink Sprunk