Sims 3 to have IGAs? IGAs or In Game Advertisements. It's becoming a bit of a lucrative market. Recently EA extended its contract agreement with Massive, an internet ad company that delivers ads for current games such as Need for Speed. In this 1Up article, EA has not ruled out that In-Game Advertisements for The Sims 3. According to Cox, several recently-announced major PC releases for EA, including The Sims 3 and Battlefield Heroes, are currently not part of the expanded partnership with Massive. "Are we looking at it?" Shelby Cox humored us, "Yes. Are we talking to Massive about potentially being our partner there? Absolutely. But this deal does not cover those products." Would you like paper or plastic?
I decided to try a different color lol. As for the topic, I've seen the Sims have ingame product advertisements before. The Urbz: Sims in the City had billboards in the game advertising Verizon phones and they had all those Redbull machines lol. I thought that concept was interesting though.
Well see Massive is in charge of a more modern form of IGAs. Basically ad spots will continue to add brand new advertisements as Massive gets contracts accordingly. Your game essentially is a giant ad spot and there will be continous advertisements added in. That's essentially what's being done with Need for Speed.
Tacky, in my opinion. I'm spammed with these adverts every day of my life on TV, driving on the highway, and in my email. I don't need them in games I'm paying for. If they really want to advertise in it, they should be paying me!
Exactly! What do they think we're gonna give in just because it's in our games. Frankly they can take their crappy ideas and put them in a place where there's no sunlight.
Exactly my feeling on the matter! Those who know me will know that I detest adverts with a passion. Really. Maplestory has a system in place now where players can spam the top right corner with personal 'shout-out' messages that pop in and out. They are distracting and very annoying. People have had their character die because they were fighting a boss when a 'pop-in' distracted them - myself included. I've no doubt that the system will be in place for Nexon to use that feature for quick adverts for companies - can you imagine a 'pop-in' saying something like "z0mg free coke with your burger at McDonalds all summer!!1"; they also have Maple TV now too in most cities, which is huge and lags your game when you walk past. Another potential advert spot. As for Sims 3, I would be extremely disappointed if it included IGAs. Why ruin a good thing? The community is still supportive of the Sims franchise and the fan base (despite Securom) is still buying their games. EAxis has loyal commitment from all its Sims players to continue buying the Sims games, and IGAs would certainly make some fans rethink. I really hope that EAxis doesn't make a huge mistake with Sims 3.
