Nickname: David Jacques

Review: Game publishers are lured by the extra dollars they can continue making off games even after their sale off the shelf. Ad agencies also after a quick buck are eager to sell them their services. But in-game advertising can ruin the user experience in many ways, and eventually hurt the game publisher by creating negative word-of-mouth bad publicity. As an example, here's the bad press in-game advertising provided to these nominees of the "Most Despicable Product Placement" Award on the widely popular (for gamers) Gamespot.com: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/features/bestof2005/index.php?day=3&page=1 There are very few appropriate ways to implement in-game advertising, and obviously not everyone gets it right.

Date reviewed: Jan 12, 2006 2:56 AM