10 January 2023

Advertising in video games: towards commercial abuse?

During 2021, an article published by Axios reignited the controversy over the appearance of advertising in console video games. Advertising, marketing and video games have in fact coexisted for many years. The democratisation of video games, whether on consoles or smartphones, makes the player an ideal target to reach. Is this a new form of communication ? Is it a potentially worrying phenomenon that is only emerging today ? To find out, we will take a brief inventory of the link that exists between advertisements and product placements within game worlds.

Yet video games have been used as a commercial medium for many years. From the 1980s, it was producers who used them to promote the release of their films, as shown by the game “Tron”, released in 1982 to boost sales of the Disney film of the same name, or Atari, which developed a video game based on the Star Wars universe in 1983 at the launch of the now cult saga. Subsequently, many brands such as McDonald’s or M&M’s (or Pepsi, Kellogg’s, Barbie, etc.) created their own video game in 1992 and 2002 respectively. This promotional system led to the coining of the neologism “advergame” to define a video game used to promote a brand’s image. All this naturally led to the creation of companies such as “Ad Invaders”, a communications consultancy based on video games, founded in 2006.

On the side of video games designed for entertainment, built-in advertisements are not absent either, and have not been for a long time, particularly in sports or car games. Indeed, sports games reproduce the use of brands displayed on the various pitches, as in any official football or tennis match. We could even say that it is part of the universe itself and contributes to immersion. The same goes for cars: games like Need For Speed or Gran Turismo give pride of place to brands. But here too it is a pleasure for the player to be able to drive the cars they dream of. Note that this is so-called static advertising, the oldest advertising format. It consists of sponsors that fit in with the game. Things become more complex with the arrival of new technologies, since it is now possible to do so-called dynamic advertising. This leads advertising placements in video games to adapt in real time to match current events in “real” life. On top of this come advertisements that can now be tailored to our own searches on the net, in order to place products most likely to interest us.

Big brands have clearly understood the value of moving into the video game world, since players are ever more numerous, and in an age group reputed to be impressionable by advertisers (18-34-year-olds). Many clothing brands, for example, have invested massively in video games. Louis Vuitton has thus partnered with Riot Games to create a clothing collection. Fila has partnered with Animal Crossing and Longchamp with Pokémon. Within video games themselves, Balenciaga clothing is available on Fortnite; with Animal Crossing, it is Marc Jacobs and Valentino who dress our avatar. So far, nothing really new in itself. From the early days of video games, brands have used the tools at their disposal to do their job, namely to promote and sell. The logic remains the same but takes new forms, due on the one hand to the possibilities of new technologies, and on the other hand to the fact that video games have become a mass cultural object that can therefore earn far more than was previously the case.

However, the presence of free-to-play mobile games has brought a new advertising approach. These games, beyond the purchases that may sometimes be offered in the game, generate their revenue by showing advertising. Sometimes it is additionally offered to the player in exchange for in-game content. This system is developing massively because it works well, very well. Given that players seem ready to put up with an advertisement of a few seconds in exchange for in-game content, why not do the same within a paid game? That is the whole controversy sparked by the Axios article. Indeed, according to this article, players would now be ready to accept it. Yet this runs counter to certain controversies that have taken place in recent years over the abusive use of advertising in video games. Witness the case of EA Sports UFC 4 or the game NBA 2K21, which flatly imposes advertisements on players. The major difference that provoked players’ fury is that this type of game is sold to consumers for between 70 and 80 euros. Axios claims that this is likely to happen on consoles from now on via developers such as Hi-Rez and EA. One more step seems to have been taken.

To conclude, the link between video games and advertising is not a new phenomenon. It exists and evolves with practices and tools, but brands’ determination to go after consumers even in virtual worlds raises questions and invites us to understand better what is going on so that we can protect ourselves and protect very young consumers. On the side of mobile games, parental controls could at the very least stop children from making payments they are heavily pressed to make. Unfortunately, that will not prevent the intrusive advertisements to which they would inevitably be exposed. In console games, we are not there yet. It is not certain that players are ready to pay 70-80 euros for a game and be shown advertising, or that such attempts would be profitable. But brands will find convincing arguments, since some publishers have reportedly already signed up. When that happens, we will need to pay attention to the types of advertisements found in the game, hoping for a clear and precise explanation of the commercial logics introduced. Indeed, it seems important to inform parents as well as possible about the existence of these commercial practices in video games in order to protect their children. Finally, it will be interesting to see the impact this will have on the player, who is immersed in a world sometimes far from the reality they know. As Julien Chièze, a video game journalist, points out, it is inconceivable to pay for a game and also be pulled out of one’s gaming experience to consume advertising.

Romain Lang

Axios article :

https://www.axios.com/playerwon-launches-tv-ads-console-games-1c02dd1a-2f6d-4e02-bd8d-b6f8b870f844.html

Ad-invaders

https://www.ad-invaders.com/serious-games

Advergame :

https://www.senscritique.com/liste/Advergames_ou_le_marketing_et_les_jeux/269382#page-1/

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advergame#Cr%C3%A9ation_de_jeux_promotionnels_(1982-1983)

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