A patent by Sony (seen here: http://www.google.com/paten... ) has been found that shows that gameplay could be interrupted for an ad. Now on the face of it this idea sounds incredibly annoying. However, I am going to show that this feature is not only an evolution of what we already see but also it is not a bad idea.
Ads in games aren’t exactly new. Since this generation has started ads have been seeping their way in. A noticeable example is massive billboards in games such as Rainbow Six: Vegas advertising AXE but this type of advertising never really took off. A new form was needed and Sony has come up with a idea. I think Sony's idea is an evolution of what we are currently seeing on mobile gaming. On the app store/android market place some games are released for free. There is often a catch for getting something for free and this usually consists of having ads play through the game (either as a banner or as a pop up from time to time at the menu screen). Now there is always another option to buy the game that doesn’t have these ads. It is a win-win for the developers as they get two sources of income (companies buying ad space and people buying the game). I feel this is a much simpler version of what Sony is possibly trying to implement.
I severally doubt that when you buy a game (at full price) that Sony (or any company for that matter) will make you sit through some ads. It doesn’t make sense and would give their competitors the edge who can claim that they are truly thinking of the gamer. I think the direction Sony is going is to start selling games for free. Now we have seen that Sony has become very interested in free to play games and are making significant advances in these types of games. I think this interrupting ad is the next step in free to play.
I can see the consumer getting PSN titles for free but obviously at a cost. This cost would be ads. The more ads you watch the more gameplay time you have. I see this type of service happening in their bigger releases (either their big blockbusters or their bigger/more expensive PSN games) and not their smaller/cheaper PSN games. I think the latter games will have a system similar to what is happening on the mobile networks. I can see a free version with ads in the form of a banner or menu pop up with the availability to buy an ad free version of the game. It makes a logical step in the free to play genre.
On the face of it, forced ads in games are a bad idea except if you look at it more closely. No company is going to make you pay and then watch ads because no-one is going to like that and it would increase the competitors appeal. To me this patent suggest a much different approach. I think it suggests a free version with ads (with the possibility unlocking time by watching ads) or a full priced version without ads. It is not exactly a bad idea for us (the consumer) to have such a feature. If we really wanted to we could play games for free. There is of course a consequence to this but in the grand schemes of things it isn’t such a big deal as you are getting something for free.
Game Rant sits down with No More Heroes creator and Grasshopper founder Suda51.
Workers at Sega of America, a division of Sega Sammy Holdings Inc., have became the first employees at a major North American video-game company to ratify a union contract, a move that may accelerate a burgeoning labor movement in an industry known for widespread instability among its work force.
The contract, ratified Tuesday, covers around 150 people across marketing and other departments at the division’s offices in Southern California. Workers will receive minimum yearly pay increases of 4% in 2024, 3% in 2025 and 2.5% in 2026 as well as a number of other benefits, Catalina Brennan-Gatica, a representative for the Communications Workers of America, said in an interview.
Another link
https://www.engadget.com/se...
This should bypass pay wall
https://www.bloomberg.com/n...
Worst thing that will happen is it will have a lower stock price and ceos won't get extra millions they don't really need. Other than that the company will continue on and ppl will be treated better.
The co-founders of Kaidro are very excited about their upcoming tie-in video game, and so should you.
Glad to read an opinion on the subject that isn't riddled with vulgarity and a toddler's tantrum. Well written blog!
I wouldn't be interested in that. To me, I'd rather just buy the game and avoid the ads.
I mean, how often are these ads gonna come up? Every hour? Every half hour? Every 10 minutes?
No offense but I really think that this is not really up to discussion until it is actually confirmed that this anything that they even plan to implement in any way. This is just like the rumor that people are running around with that Microsoft and Sony are planning to block used games. Sony is a company and have hundreds of ideas every day. Many patients on N4G are found and paraded around and are never implemented in any form or fashion. This wasn't even something that was found this year. So you can speculate if you want but until we actually see any proof of this even being used in any way I see no reason to figure it out.
I doubt ads would pop up while you are playing, that would be insanely annoying.
They would likely show up where they wouldn't effect gameplay, menus and Save/Load screens for example.
Here's an example of an in-game ad. it was a feature in BF2143. it had ads that were there to make the game feel realistic in a way.
http://www.flickr.com/photo...