Ads in games

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Awhile back, ads in computer games were discussed. Here's a link to a
recent interview with Microsoft's J. Allard at this year's Game Developer's
Conference (GDC).

http://www6.tomshardware.com/business/20050319/gdc_2005...

There's An Advertisement In My Interface!

"One reader emailed me with a concern about the message alert function
presented in your keynote. He wanted to know if that could ever be the
doorway for the introduction of pop-up advertisements, etc?

Well I will separate two things. One, you have got to be able to manage that
alert system. So I want to be able to set a "Do Not Disturb" mode - whether
playing a game or watching a movie, I don't want the Internet bugging me. I
am in my experience, I'm doing my thing... bug off! That's Step 1.

Step 2, I think we have to figure out advertising. You talked about rising
development costs, and asked me about that, and I talked a little about
episodic or broadcast gaming during my Keynote. How are we going to bring
some more money into the ecosystem to create bigger and better products?
Look at the film Minority Report. Really high tech movie, really cool stuff.
I loved those UI [User Interface] metaphors they came up with. We all kind
of enjoyed the movie. But realize that they got funded by advertising.
They've got several million bucks in special effects, I don't know the exact
number, it couldn't have happened without advertising."

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BTW If someone walks up to me and say's, "I'll give you 2 million dollars
to wear this Taco Bell shirt while you walk around.", then I'm going home to
tell my wife, "Honey look at the cool shirt that I got today!"