Gamertell

Usually I don’t give any of the advertisements a second look, but when I logged in to play Flash Hero (a Guitar Hero-esque Facebook game), a fairly unassuming ad caught my eye.

“ACE YOUR FINALS - $25 - Get access to 45,000 term paper and essays right here!”

So right above a flash game that 13-24 year olds are likely to play is an ad endorsing cheating…

MORE »

Check out the gallery: Controversial facebook ad

The latest move in the ongoing fight to ban violent video games by non-gaming communities worldwide is pulling advertisements for upcoming video games. Besides TV commercials, the latest ads to be banned are from the sides of buses in Chicago.

One of the ads yanked from the sides of a buses and buildings is the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV ad, according to Game Daily. This occurred following a weekend of violent shootings and isn’t the first time GTA ads have been removed. It’s also not the first time any ad has been removed for being potentially too violent…

MORE »

In response to my Gamook post from last month (February 14, 2008), one of the company reps responded to my post and offered a bit more information about how to monitor revenue.

Gamook creates (or purchases) Flash-based games that webmasters embed into their sites. The site then accrues earnings based on how often a game is played and the the advertising placed in and around the games. The rep previously indicated that an affiliate earns 30% of the ad revenue generated by each game.

Click through for her email…

MORE »

Advertisements for the videogame Stranglehold have been officially banned from television as of January 16, 2008 by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for being too violent.

According to the ASA Adjudications posted on January 16, 2008, the issues the ASA had with the game were the promotion of “glorified” violence and the danger of impressionable children watching during the time frame it aired. The concern over time was an issue because the commercial aired before 7:30 p.m., a time when young children are most likely still watching television.

According to the ruling, both Picture Production Company (PPC) and Clearcast had made the necessary changes to the commercial for it to meet ASA standards. PPC told ASA that it removed the bullet flying scenes and ensured no character was struck by a bullet in the commercial. Clearcast claimed it thought the violence was unrealistic enough to meet the standards for advertisement.

MORE »

Due to the high demand of Nintendo’s Wii console, Nintendo will pull the holiday ads for Wii and replace them with ads for the Nintendo DS until New Years.

This switch is to help push the DS and give the company time to restock their Wii supplies as reports mount of expensive bundles, eBay price stalking and desperate customers trying to purchase a console in time for Christmas. In an interview with Marketing Weekly, Nintendo representatives said it would be irresponsible of them to continue the campaign and unfair to their customers.

“We have been running the campaign all year round, but we want to take a responsible stance this Christmas and not fuel demand,” said a Nintendo spokesman and added that although production has been stepped up to 1.8 million units a month they have not been able to keep up with the demands. “(we are) potentially looking at moving some advertising on some products into early 2008.”

Starting now, the campaign for the Wii system created by Karmarama will be replaced with ads for the Nintendo DS until enough consoles could be produced to meet the demands and resupply their stock.

The game company has also increased its forecast of the number of units it expects to sell in the year to March 2008 from 14 million to 17.5 million.

Read [MCV] Read [Marketing Weekly]

ReportOnBuisness detailed the business plans of Massive Incorporated last Saturday (August 4th, 2007) and it looks like there will be plenty more advertisements headed into our video games in upcoming years. The article by Matt Hartley cited this new facet of the advertisement industry as a potentially being “worth billions within five or six years.”

Readers might remember a little rant from my previous post on Google’s beeline for this new niche marketing spot, and it looks like this is more of the same. There’s reason to hope, however, that this new appendage of the video game industry will try to keep itself as unobtrusive as possible, especially if it’s done by folks like Cory Van Arsdale, CEO of Massive Incorporated:

“It first and foremost has to fit within the context of the game, if it doesn’t, it just sticks out like a sore thumb and the gaming community just rakes you over the coals for being a bunch of idiots,” he said. “If you’re enhancing the user’s environment, you’re enhancing the value of the medium in terms of reaching that user.”

Which is the silver lining, I suppose. This means we might not have to suffer through SUV ads in our role playing games or spots for toothpaste in our FPSes. Still, if I see even one ad for feminine napkins in any game I will just lose it (only kidding girls.)

Read [ReportOnBuisness] Also Read [Massive Incorporated]

With digital distribution becoming more popular for various media - with both companies and consumers - it’s no surprise that sales for online video game purchases are expected to increase during the next few years.

DFC Intelligence, a marketing and research firm, released a report titled “Online Game Market Forecasts” that projects online video game sales will increase from $4.5 billion in 2006 to $13 billion by 2012. The report also projects that digital distribution will constitute 40% of all online game spending.

With all of this money being spent on video games and the influx of in-game advertising by companies such as Google, we still cannot expect game prices to fall due to being spent on advertising.

Video games are big money productions, requiring Hollywood production size staffs, budgets and release schedules. A report by eMarkerter projects that worldwide game advertising spending will increase from $692 million in 2006 to $1.938 billion. Commercials in front of movies and must-view trailers on DVDs? That’s nothin’ compared to what we can expect from video games in the near future.

Read [WebProNews] Also Read [eMarketer]