Ads Dont's Equal Cheaper Games

One of the strongest arguments supporters of video game advertising have been making is that extra revenue from advertising dollars will ultimately reduce development cost which will be translated to cheaper games. It appears however Electronic Arts Senior Director of in game advertising, Shebly Cox, does not believe in this logic. Electronic Arts has multiple sports and driving franchises, and they have been credited with bringing in game ads to the players without being overly intrusive. Yet despite their use ads their games still run thr full $60 at retail. In a phone interview with Next-Gen, she was quoted as saying "Advertising is not going to be that silver bullet to make everything okay".

That isnt to say that the revenue from in game advertising does not help with costs. However, she explains that next generation development costs are astronomical and that advertising dollars arent going to magically make things ok. Combating development costs will require then finding multiple solutions to the same problem, not just the in game advertising solution. So it seems that in the effort to bring cheaper games to consumers, new strategies will have to be implemented in addition to advertsing in games.

What these means for gamers like me is that we should continue to expect to be paying $60 for console games, despite how many ads developers choose to place in the game. The only time advertising truly benefits games are in the pc market, with free-to-play online MMOs. In situations such as those the games are allowed to be free thanks to the advertiments and virtual item purchases, however on the home console market, these model does not apply.



With record sales in the video game industry in 2007, consumers, myself included, dont seem to mind the steep prices because of the entertainment value of the games. However if prices continue to rise there may be a point where consumers may react and the sale of games declines because of the high prices. Hopefully soon publishers like EA will find other ways to cut costs and then consumers can enjoy quality games for under $60.

No matter how many advertisements these games may have, they will still cost $60.