I've never really understood the outrage that arises in gamers when they believe someone is actively trying to sell them something. I'm talking about product placement, the practice of inserting images of a product into a game with the intention of drawing attention to the brand. It's not new, but it'ssurprisingly uncommon in games and even more shockingly unpopular.

Don't get me wrong, I don't really like adverts either. I don't sit down in front of my 360 and wonder what brand of toilet paper Big Daddies prefer, or ponder the carbonated beverage of choice for the discerning Jedi Knight. But I recognise that it's increasingly difficult for companies, specifically those sinking huge budgets into their game, to turn a profit and that allowingNestlé to stick a couple of chocolate bars into the in-game stores and billboards represents an attractive source of funding. Hell, let's not forget the Cool Spot games, the protagonist of which was actually part of the 7-Up logo!



Folks, it doesn't get much more blatant than this! Regardless of the blatant commercialism, however, I thought the game was a pretty decent platformer. Oh sure, it dated a lot quicker than Mario or Sonic but, for the time, it was a good game.

Squaresoft (as it was known at the time) also dipped their toe into the advertising pool, allowing the characters of Final Fantasy IX to endorse Coca Cola in Japan:



Granted, this was not an in-game product placement, but it was a well-established, respected development house and publisher allowing proprietary characters to be used to promote another company's product. This was clearly a golden opportunity for Squaresoft, to use their popular characters to earn themselves a hefty (I hope) chunk of Coca Cola's vast advertising budget. Does this dilute the Final Fantasy brand? I doubt it, but I daresay it helped pay for the development of later titles in the series.

Other games have employed limited product placement. Some subtle, some less so. One interesting example was that of Theme Hospital. I don't know if they actually got paid for it, as I've heard rumours that it was more an homage than an ad, but they featured the logo of the Kit Kat chocolate biscuit on their vending machines:



If this wasn't a paid ad,then it should have been. It was a well-placed advert that was not intrusive or distracting and, most importantly, was appropriate to the setting.

That an advert fit the setting is essential. If Coca Cola had made an actual in-game appearance in FFIX, it would have been a jarring, immersion-breaking sight: completely out of place in the high-fantasy setting. Some games lend themselves so product placement more than others. Dead Rising, for example, would have been an ideal candidate for such advertising. It is set in a mall. Come on! How more commercial can you get? Would a scene such as this one have any effect on your immersion?



I'm sure they would have made more effort to blend it in. Seriously though, for little or no impact on gameplay and immersion, Capcom could have collected a modest sum of money to put towards promoting the game or sink into a new project. How can this be considered a bad thing?

Now, I’m all for limited product placement, but some companies do take a slightly dubious approach. Battlefield 2142 featured in-game billboards on which the publisher could post targetted advertising. This means that the game included spyware-ish elements to watch the browsing habits of their customers in order to generate ads tailored to each individual.



I see the attraction for games publishers and advertisers in employing a targetted approach to advertising. It makes so much more sense to focus on serving ads that the individual would actually be likely to care about and take the time to look at as they pass by. But to turn your game in glorified spyware does not seem a particularly good way to do it. This move caused a great deal of animosity amongst fans and although it represented a new revenue stream to fund development, it did so at the cost of public good will.

I'm not an economist. I've never run a business. I can't give you figures or anything of any real use beyond my opinions and photoshopping of corporate logos into videogame screenshots. What I can tell you is that it really does seem that games companies are missing out on a source of income that could, if done sparingly and with thought to public image, prove invaluable in surviving this tough climate and continuing to produce quality entertainment products for our consumption.

TTYL, and eat fresh!

Eat Fresh!