I despise ads, especially those that interrupt what I am doing or get in the way of my intended experience. Youtube has become an absolute nightmare for ads recently and whilst I use an ad blocker on my PC to not deal with it when I watch videos with my wife on our TV the ads are non-stop.
Which is why I fear for this most recent announcement, EA Advertising. It’s essentially a new system EA is introducing that will allow advertisers to directly insert product placement or ads into games in an ‘integrated way’, whatever that means. At present it’s only being featured in EA’s collection of sports games, which makes sense, as those even real life sports have ads absolutely everywhere from the pitch side banners to the cut-away commentary segments so perhaps this will truly feel integrated after all, but the thing that worries me is that these will most likely turn up in games we have already paid for. We’ve already started giving companies the pass on putting Microtransactions into full priced games and now with this system it could set a worrying trend. The latest shooter you enjoy? Make sure to enjoy the corporate plastered logo on the side of your gun when you aim down sights, in your full priced game. We obviously don’t know too many details at present, but we will have to see just how much piss is willing to be taken on a system such as this in the future by EA, and other companies that no doubt will try to follow suite.
That’s all for now, and as always. It’s not just a game, It’s a Life.