While talking/reading about the America’s Army videogame, something seemed weird to me. I couldn’t picture how an “adver-game” like this could be so popular. It doesn’t seem like people would get excited to play (and pay) for a game that is essentially an advertisement.
While thinking about this, I remembered an old game that my brother rented from Scott’s when I was younger. The game was called Cool Spot. If you’re not familiar with the little guy, he’s the red “dot” in the 7 Up logo. They actually made a game about a dot in a soda company’s logo. Even when I was a kid I found this to be weird.
When I got back from class I told my roommate (much more of a gamer than I am) about the Cool Spot game. He redirected me to this.
I couldn’t believe so many adver-games had been made. The highlights of the video include:
- A game where you try to break Chester Cheetah out of the zoo
- A game where you play as the Kool-Aid Man
- 3 different Burger King mini-games
- McKids, a McDonalds-themed Mario rip-off
- A Doom look-a-like entitled Chex Quest
- Darkened Skye, a game about Skittles
The game I actually found most interesting was Darkened Skye. This stuck out because the Skittles advertising is hidden. All these other games show their blatant advertising on the box or in the title. Darkened Skye (a full 3d adventure game) has no mention of Skittles until you find one in the game. The game’s quest, believe it or not, is to restore the rainbow.
While I’m sure these games were all pretty awful in terms of commercial success, I think that advertising will slowly creep more and more into video games, just in less blatant ways. Product placement is already pretty common in many AAA titles released today. I’m willing to bet that this will become just as common in videogames as it is in movies. With the extreme realism games are advancing towards, developers will need to add more detail to the objects in their games. What better way than to add a real life product and get paid at the same time?
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