In-Game Ads to Reach Nearly $1 Billion by 2011
By Andrew on Sunday, July 8th, 2007 at 10:53 AM PST In Games Industry
Okay, so maybe a billion dollars is a bit much, but this article over at Gamasutra.com gives an interesting perspective into in-game advertising and how it’s going to ramp up to $971 million by 2011.
In 2005, there was $56 million dollars spent on in-game advertising, and $77 million in 2006. The growth makes sense for the 2011 mark, and it falls in line with a shift in advertisement spending.
Gamasutra reported that $3.6 billion were spent last year on traditional advertising, including television, print and radio, while money spent on internet advertising increased $4.3 billion. Add this to a growing gaming base and streaming technology, and you get a whole lot of money being invested into in-game advertising for PC Gaming and any other games connected online.
All I can say is I’d much rather look at a few ads than have to pay a monthly subscription fee for my games.
I actually think in-game advertising, used in the right places of course, can fit in perfectly. I know in 2142 that there will still be advertising, so when you fight in a city in Battlefield 2142, I find it cool that there are adverts. I have no erk with it.
I would rather pay a fee to game online that have to sit through 3 minutes of ads before every capture the flag match. TV was supposed to be free because of ads. But now you need cable or satellite for the specialty channels, and they still have ads. It does make things more realistic in-game, it just depends on how intrusive it will be (like ads before a match…).
Oh God, if it was ads BEFORE matches, I would be very annoyed. As it is now, I think it’s alright. But if that’s the future, I’m not in favour!