Ghostbusters, Featuring: Doritos! Product placement and the future of Video Games

June 14, 3:32 PMSan Jose Video Game ExaminerSean Buckley

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Dorito anyone?

As gameplay footage for Tuesday’s release of Ghostbusters (Xbox360/PS3) began to surface on the Internet, we couldn’t help but notice Doritos’ Truck in the room.  It’s a good example of the best kind of product placement - naturally integrated into the environment as a truck that might realistically be parked on a busy street,  it’s present but not invasive.

In-game advertising is nothing new, just last year Barack Obama’s presidential campaign caught some attention for buying ads on virtual real estate - and it’s been around longer than that.  Although advertising in video games is still considered an experiment by much of the industry, men such as John Warner hope that product placement will soon find a home in games, ensuring profit even in the face of piracy.

“I think people are voting - they’re just not interested in paying for games any more,” Warner told Kotaku in May. “If there’s going to be a poster on the wall, and a brand on that poster, you might as well make it a real one,” his partner, Mitch Lagran, explained.

Lagran and Warner started looking to advertising after they noticed piracy of their first game exceeded sales by over 35000% in it’s first day.  “I think we’re at a point where indies have to consider a new revenue model. Because it takes a long time to make a game.” Warner stated.  Lagran, Warner, and the creators of the Ghostbusters game have the right idea - non intrusive advertising is definitely the way to go,  in favor of breaking up the action in the vein of TV commercials.  It’s also a potentially lucrative business to be getting into - according to Screen Promo media anlyasts, In-Game advertising could be a billion dollar industry in as little as five years.

Although it still may be hard to swallow embedded advertisements in a video game that costs $60 on it’s own, in-game ads are here to stay.  Considering the contemporary non-invasive approach advertisers seem to be taking, it’s doubtful it will effect the player experience much - and hopefully will pave the way to lower prices and possibly ad-supported gaming sometime in the future.  Today? All  you have to worry about are continunity errors: How did a mid-90s Doritos logo get in a Ghostbusters game that takes place in the late 80s/early 90s?