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World of adwarcraft
January 11, 2006
The first of my five predictions for 2006 was this: "A free online game, supported by advertising and product placement, becomes widely popular, threatening the traditional business model of the gaming industry." Somebody immediately posted a comment reminding me that one ad-supported online game, Neopets, has already become widely popular - among kids. That's absolutely right (have you read the Wired piece on "the Neopets addiction"?), but we're still awaiting the mainstream game that overturns the old pay-for-the-software-and/or-the-subscription model. The game that makes all games free.
It's certainly getting closer. This morning, Business Week reports that an ad agency specializing in in-game advertising has just been launched. The company, Engage In-Game Advertising, claims it will provide "strategic planning and placement services targeted specifically for videogame advertising," and it announced its first client: Subway. An Engage executive says, "Since it's a relatively new medium, many companies are unaware of the promotional reach and creative flexibility videogame advertising can provide when trying to target the elusive 18- to 34-year-old male audience."
The video game industry had weak sales last year, for a variety of reasons. But I think the really big disruption, the one that will overturn the business models of both game makers and console makers, lies just ahead.
But what really fascinates me is the idea of virtual advertising creeping in to virtual worlds. No doubt we'll also begin to see "real" virtual stores being constructed within games - so you won't have to leave the game to, say, shop for and order a new Alienware PC. Having the biggest virtual mall will become a selling point for games. And we'll see entrepreneurs begin to open "virtual" virtual stores that will actually compete with one another to sell magic potions and broadswords and other stuff to use within the game. And those stores will, of course, buy advertising in the game - and they'll even have to bid against each other for the prime spots. The economies of virtual worlds, already complex, will become, well, real.
Where does it end? I shudder to think.
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Comments
Why shudder? It makes perfect sense. Right now all these vendors maintain "virtual" web sites/stores? Why not just move them where the traffic is? Online is all about convenience. The trick will still be to be relevant and non-intrusive.
Posted by: ordaj at January 11, 2006 09:35 AM
Of course in a manner of speaking America's Army "advertises" the US military (why else would they keep doing it and consider it a success?) and it has been very popular. On the other side of the ledger, the UN's "Food Force" game - supposedly the second most downloaded free game - "advertises" UN food relief and the UN itself.
Posted by: David Brake at January 11, 2006 11:52 AM
Kingdom of Loathing has a mall and a streaming radio station for players, where you can win in-game goods as prizes.
Posted by: Don Marti at January 11, 2006 01:55 PM
Well, the next step is not very hard to imagine. In the virtual games there will be virtual shops where you will be able to buy/sell various artifacts. It is not hard to imagine that soon the real world behaviour will also migrate there so that you may see things like: discounts for buiyng magic potions in bulk, prizes for the each million buyer, sale for items sold during off peak playing time and so one
Then you will aslo be able to order T-shirts or photos with your favorite monster directly from your game and deliver it to your door by UPS. (the cost of delivery may covered by ads or just by credits won while playing the game)
As ring tones were so sucsseful in customizing the mobile experience maybe games will get as a basic feature the possibility to scan your own face and transfer it to your game character (at a cost of course)
Looking forward for the moment when I will be able to impersonate James Bond (if such a game exist).
Posted by: dragos at January 11, 2006 02:50 PM
End of last year I wrote an blog article in german about the same theme and found during my researches a popular online game that offers already free access and In-Game advertising. It's called Anarchy Online, a Sci-Fi based Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). They offer In-Game Advertising based on the http://www.massiveincorporated.com technology, a company specialized in In-Game Ads. They have implemented In-Game Advertising since July 2005, you find more infos under http://www.anarchy-online.com/content/news/articles/8606L/
I was also quite impressed by the aproach they have choosen, I even found an print screen with an in-game ad of Sprite Zero.
Posted by: Gian-Franco Salvato at January 12, 2006 05:20 PM
It becomes ironically unbelievable, but inevitable, as this parellels so many breaking grounds in the history of our world. The
gaming industry is hot, but it's keeping it's cool on the progress that is happening. World of Warcraft is an example of full-score invasion, maybe it'll make the predictions real. As far as we're concerned the future of gaming will always veer towards more and more hyperrealism at no expense.
Posted by: Bruce at January 16, 2006 02:32 AM
A not so wild guess would be advertising space in EVE Online with more than 80.000 subscribers and sometimes as many as 20.000 concurrent players.
http://www.eve-online.com
http://www.ccpgames.com
Posted by: vp at January 18, 2006 06:14 PM
The success of Neopets has already been pointed out. And in Germany a fairly simplistic shooter game called "Moorhuhn" was almost a national (office) passtime and celebrated its 5th birthday back in October. It carries ads (or used to) for Johnnie Walker whiskey so it´s hardly targeted at kids.
Posted by: erich at January 20, 2006 07:24 PM
The Atlantic article:
Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
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