Splinter Cell fans have urge to buy 300
by Richard Mitchell 
{ Aug 1st 2007 at 12:30PM }
If you've been sneaking around in Splinter Cell: Double Agent multiplayer lately, you may have had a strange desire to purchase 300 on DVD (and Hi-Def!). X3F reader NitroFrost sent us the image above, in which you can behold the power of in-game advertising. The new ads apparently seemed to arrive at about the same time as the recently released downloadable content. As usual, seeing an ad like this makes us wonder how players actually feel about them. Frankly, it's hard for us to argue with 300's awesomeness (in the true sense of the word), but we're not sure that it adds to the experience. What say you, fanboys? Do ads ruin the experience? Does it depend on the product being advertised? What if it were Doritos or Sprite, for example)? Let your voice be heard in the comments below.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Fezmid @ Aug 1st 2007 12:36PM
I don't have a problem with it, as long as it fits in the context of the game. I would NOT want to see advertising in Oblivion, for example. However, advertising in Crackdown is kinda cool -- and I like how the signs change from time to time.
That said, we should get a discount for the game if there's advertising in it... :)
Tony @ Aug 1st 2007 12:38PM
Yeah, it definitely depends on the game. If they have phony billboards to begin with, I really don't care... particularly if it helps make DLC free.
Th3Tru7h @ Aug 1st 2007 12:39PM
I don't mind it, as long as doesn't pop up, and really distract you from gaming.
Token @ Aug 1st 2007 12:39PM
That happened to me in Crackdown, and Rainbow Six: Vegas.
dunnypop @ Aug 1st 2007 12:41PM
Sometimes I like seeing ads change in games. It's pretty cool to see Smokin' Aces and Axe ad's in Rainbow. It makes the game a little more relevant.
As long as we can get some free DLC, I'm all for having ads.
a ham sandwich @ Aug 1st 2007 12:41PM
great posts @ 1 and 2! i heartily agree with both of you!
jdkay20 @ Aug 1st 2007 12:41PM
the same ads are in Rainbow 6 Vegas. Mostly in the Casino map.
HHHawk @ Aug 1st 2007 12:43PM
Yeah it's in Vegas too for 300, probably GRAW 2 as well.
Tyler @ Aug 1st 2007 12:42PM
The 300 ad has been going on for a while. I have seen it in Rainbow Six Vegas for a while now. Go the the elevators in Calypso Casino and it's there. Apparently it is in Crackdown too.
DjDATZ @ Aug 1st 2007 12:47PM
I agree with Fezmid; as long as some form of advertising seems to be natural at that spot in the game, I'm all for it, but not when it sticks out like a sore thumb...then its just annoying...lol
Lharmon @ Aug 1st 2007 12:58PM
Yeah, I've been seeing ads for 300 on RB6 vegas for a week or more. I think it's ok, but we've PAID for this game. It shouldn't have advertising!
Ok, Ok... it looks fine though. In reality I don't mind it. However, since I paid $60 plus for the game, why not hook me up with some free DLC? It could be crap DLC, but give us something if you are going to shove ads down our throats!
I mean, Discovery Channel provided a couple of maps for GOW, and there was NO in game advertising!
Etchasketchist @ Aug 1st 2007 2:03PM
300 was boring, racist, fascist, homo-erotic war porn. Neo-spartan revivalism was ugly back in Germany in 1938 and it's still ugly now.
OTAM @ Aug 1st 2007 12:59PM
That's weird...I mean,I see my game being whored out with advertisements...yet I still had to pay $59.99.
bigd7387 @ Aug 1st 2007 1:06PM
Ever since I started playing the Atari 2600 I have liked ads in games. I always thought that the ads added legitimacy to my favorite past time. Yeah I would like to get a game alittle cheaper with ads but I also started waiting about 3-4 mos. before I by a game so I don't have to pay full price. Yeah I'm cheap.
JediMasterASD @ Aug 1st 2007 1:06PM
thats so weird because i actually just rented SC:DA and played through it for the first time this week because my GF is in hawaii on vacation with her fam. oddly though the 300 Ad wasnt in there when i played and i would have noticed because i noticed them everywhere in RS:Vegas about 2 weeks ago. I havent downloaded anything for Double Agent though so it must have been included in some DLC that they put out.
Tony Bowman @ Aug 1st 2007 1:12PM
anything that adds to the the believability of the game world without detracting from the gaming experience is a-ok with me, ads included.
Vincent @ Aug 1st 2007 1:15PM
I saw the 300 ad all over Rainbow Six:Vegas, also The Bourne Ultimatum. Also, in Def Jam:Icon, in the club they have a 300 ad hidden in the background a little. I personally like the ads because it makes the games seem a little more real. But as the first guy said, it has to fit the game...I don't wanna be playing Oblivion one day and see some guy running around one of the towns handing out fliers for 300
YoRone22 @ Aug 1st 2007 1:16PM
It's in Def Jam Icon too. I thought it was pretty cool.
Jason @ Aug 1st 2007 1:19PM
I understand the point that in a game like this the ads become part of the background quite nicely and it actually helps them mimic our ad-infested world.
I also agree that they would look horrible in Oblivion, or say, Viva Pinata.
This worries me though because if we accept these ads so readily in our Tom Clancy games and our Crackdowns then developers and publishers might start to favor games that have realistic environments as opposed to fantastic environments and we might see a decline in Oblivions, Marios, and God of Wars.
If it were up to me, we wouldn’t have these ads at all; at least not in games that we’ve paid for.
JeremyK @ Aug 1st 2007 1:24PM
Yep, I saw the same exact ad in RB6. Stuff like that doesn't bother me though.
If we ever get pop up advertising like what is all over the internet than I'd be pissed... :P
Wolfrider @ Aug 1st 2007 1:24PM
God, that is obnoxious. When I keep hearing about in game ads; I always think product placement. Like a Coke machine sitting somewhere. That's irritating (especially because I'm paying full price for the thing), but giant distracting billboards? That's a bloody eyesore. It looks like a popup ad.
Ugh, I have to say I'm pretty disgusted at the comments too. "Sure, let us all bend over for the multi-million dollar game companies! We don't have the spine to say no."
I couldn't imagine this in any other medium. Could you imagine in the middle of a movie a commercial break for fruit punch? Or listening to a Wilco album and hearing, "The following song has been brought to you by X. [Instert lame slogan here]." It's bad enough I have to sit through garbage advertisements at the beginning of movies in the theatre, but holy crap, right in the middle of the game. Scratch Splinter Cell off my to buy list. Maybe I'll pirate it. Hey, they're making money off the ads anyway, who's to say I don't deserve it for free?
Jared @ Aug 1st 2007 1:26PM
Guess what the other day when I was driving down the freeway, I saw a billboard with an ad for a Studebaker. And a DeLorean. And a Yugo.
Just like the ad for the Dodge whateverthefuck in 'Crackdown'.
It's set IN THE FUTURE, people!!
Why would you have a huge marketing blitz for a 20+ (that's an EXTREMELY generous number) year old car?!
I see no problems in SOME aspects for in-game adverts. And this coming from a person who is absolutely horrified by modern advertising.
However, games like Fight Night Round 3 make it nearly impossible to play without rolling my eyes at all the crap that's shoved down your throat.
It (in-game adverts) has the exact opposite effect on me and most of my friends. I will go out of my way to NOT purchase products so blatantly and aggressively marketed.
Insomnious @ Aug 1st 2007 1:31PM
I don't mind adverts in games, as long as they're relevant to the situaton and location. Seeing Axe adverts is just annoying, not only because it doesn't exist over here in the UK, but also because I know it's UK counterpart (Lynx) smells like parrot's piss.
And why would a Vegas casino place adverts in their hallways for the Royal Navy?
Ashraam @ Aug 1st 2007 1:51PM
As a few others have stated, I really don't mind the ads as long as they can feasibly fit within the context of the game and they don't look out of place.
The ads in Rainbow Six and Crackdown were fine, because the presence of real world products makes the game more immersive to me.
For instance, I'd much rather see a Pepsi or Coke machine in an office building than a machine that just says "Cola" or "Fizzypop" or what have you.
refinedsugar @ Aug 1st 2007 1:53PM
Nuka Cola FTW!
Anti @ Aug 1st 2007 2:02PM
If in game Ads can offest the rising cost of making games and those savings can be seen by the consumer... Bring on the Ads.
Elric @ Aug 1st 2007 2:10PM
Wolfrider:
I'm pretty sure the movie "The Island" was a gigantic commercial (I remember seeing some... shoes... coke... the gaming machine had the xbox logo...) I'm not saying its ok, just that it does happen in other "mediums".
Jonas @ Aug 1st 2007 2:35PM
If I did not have to pay for the game...no problem. But if I had to pay full price for the game, well... the notion of paying to be advertised to is not a pleasant one. And of course, keep it relative to the game.
JeremyK @ Aug 1st 2007 2:33PM
I hate to break it to you Wolf but there's very similar types of ads in most movies now days. You just don't notice them apparently.
Comparing it to a popup ad is just silly. It's part of the background and isn't any different than if you'd walk out your front door and noticed a billboard across the street...
Grindstone @ Aug 1st 2007 2:32PM
It doesn't bother me, but I would like either free DLC or a price cut on the game. Still, I fel it helps with the emergence of the game.
xenocidic @ Aug 1st 2007 2:38PM
@20 movies have had product placement for a long time now.
for a slightly in your face example, watch Transformers.
transforming Xbox 360 anyone?
kevin @ Aug 1st 2007 2:51PM
no problem with ads... especially if it had something to do with free DLC or lower priced games...!!?!>?!
Ryan @ Aug 2nd 2007 10:09AM
Its fucking bullshit...unless the game is discounted or there is noteworthy DLC for free.
JediMasterASD @ Aug 1st 2007 3:41PM
if you have to pirate it to play it then you do that because like i said i just played this game and it was one of the best single player experiences ive had on my 360. the hole aspect of pleasing both sides works so well. but to be honest not buying/renting a great game because there is an Ad for a movie is ridiculous! games like crackdown gta RS:vegas all have billboards and whatnot already in them to make the environments more believable so what difference does it make whether its some made up crap on the billboard or a real ad. personally in these situations a real ad makes it better.
Now if you were playing a game like say Marble Blast Ultra and the side of a wall in a level was a giant ad or something stupid like that then you can get mad but so far every in-game ad has been on a billboard or something that otherwise would have just been something stupid like a movie titled 800 with the captions "THIS IS BARTA!!!"
so enjoy the games and until they put a pepsi symbol on the back of your character in a third person game shut up and stop complaining
Carbonize @ Aug 1st 2007 3:43PM
I wonder how many of the people complaining about the price of the games live in the US? Come and live in the UK and then you can bitch about the price of games, until then just shut up and stop whining like a bitch.
Halo 3 US = $50
Halo 3 UK = £50 (around $100)
The European Council has clamped down on the pricing of MP3s so when they going to clamp down on the extortion racket that is console games.
I wonder if Bungie is going to put some ads in Halo 3's urban levels? Would fit and given the presales they could demand a pretty penny for the space.
Maybe the ads should be location based liked Googles Adsense so people see advertising relative to their own country? I wonder how log it will be until someone starts up a company offering this very service? Programmers just put the relative ad spaces in the games then the company provides adverts based on ip and gives the game companies a share of the revenue.
Can I copyright this idea :-/
AoE @ Aug 1st 2007 3:43PM
Considering the advertising is most likely WHY the content pack is free to us, I see no reason to complain.
Snarkstar @ Aug 1st 2007 4:06PM
It makes little to no sense to demand something in return for FREE when you see ads in games. I don't remember the price of a movie ticket being subsidized because of a Pepsi product placement. Ad revenue goes straight to the publisher where it is reinvested in the production of a new game. Sure the publishers are making money, but that's the whole point. Maybe you don't want more and better games pushed out the door faster, but I do.
hawk @ Aug 1st 2007 6:57PM
I don't really have a problem with it as long as it fits within the context of the game. As for the people complaining about the ads let me ask you this question. Does your cable company give you a discount because they make you watch ads? I mean you're paying for that right? What about previews at the movies? They make you sit through 15 minutes of previews but yet the prices keep going up. It's not like they're forcing you to sit and read the ads in the games.
I will say this though. The day they make me watch a tv commercial sytle ad while a game is loading is the day I get upset about this.
leo2178 @ Aug 1st 2007 7:07PM
Having advertising in the game is a total ripoff. It sucks!!! I did not pay $400 dollars on a system and then $60 per game to have ads forced on me. I already have to look at that crap on my main page now the update and stuff them in to the games to. Microsoft are the greediest bastards I've ever seen. I bet the 360 planning meeting went like this, "first we'll get people to pay for a faulty system, then have them spend $10 bucks more for the same games they can get on older systems, now charge everybody a monthly fee if they actually want to play those games on-line, then once everybody is on-line get them to buy overpriced content that is already available elsewhere for free, and on top of all of that get other companies to pay us to plaster everything with their logos, f-ing genius." I give up on the 360, they can kiss my a** if they think I will give them another dollar.
Ciaran Gallagher @ Aug 1st 2007 8:27PM
Depends on the game. I wouldn't want it appearing when I'm playing a WW2 game!
spurta @ Aug 1st 2007 8:55PM
@ 35:
So you're willing to get in line and pay that price like all the other sheep and we should be quite because of it? Nahhhh. Too high = too high.
We didn't like exorbitant taxes either, so we did something about it.
@ Rest:
In game advertising is obnoxious and very rarely ever warranted. Realism? Every single vehicle in R6:V is a dodge and you call that realism? An Axe billboard shoved down your throat during a cutscene where you're about to rescue hostages isn't over-the-top?
FN3 was some of the most over the top disgusting pandering to advertising I've ever seen. Your trainer is Burger King's mascot? WTF?!?!?! It had the opposite effect on me when I saw that. I boycotted BK for a year just because they think they're going to insult me and my intelligence like that.
Give me a break people, the advertising is already out of control and they have JUST started doing it.
I play game for escapism, NOT to be dragged kicking and screaming back into reality by some goddamn marketer. Is that so much to ask?
It's to offset the cost of games? Then why are my prices for system and games higher than ever?
What next? "This kill streak brought to you by Pizza Hut! Make every kill a 'Tombstone', kill!"
Carbonize @ Aug 1st 2007 9:33PM
Tax has nothing to do with the price of games here in the UK. We're always getting ripped off when it comes to the price of things. Cars, MP3's, albums, computer games and so on.
Oh and if you do a search you will find that there is already a game coming out with sponsored achievements or something equally as stupid.
@39 - So go sell your 360 and buy a Wii or DS since they sound about your level.
Casting my mind back to many years ago there has always been advertising in games. Even back in the good old 8bit days. Atleast in todays games the advertising is easier to ignore since the billboards would of probably been there anyway same with vending machines. I seem to recall that in some game when you viewed your phone/pda/computer or whatever it said Sony Ericcsson at the top.
Wolfrider @ Aug 2nd 2007 12:47AM
As far as movies are concerned, there's a difference between product placement and an advertisement. A movie has product placement. Not something I enjoy, but something that usually falls into the background enough so that I don't notice it.
Ads on the other hand are completely different. I can't remember a movie where I saw a Billboard or a TV advertisement playing. Sure, Castaway had FedEx trucks everywhere but that wasn't as obnoxious as "BUY 300! NOW!!" I'd prefer just to see the DVD sitting out a table or something, that's far less immersion killing and can actually be kind of cute. Like MGS2's Maxim magazines. The billboard is just an eyesore and just serves to yank me out of the game's narrative.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I find that, after buying something, I prefer not to have the merchant follow me into my house and keep yelling, "WAIT! YOU WANT THIS TOO!"
I guess I'm just selfish that way.
Tobberoth @ Aug 5th 2007 1:12AM
I think it should be like TV. Sure, I can take commercials and ads, but then the multiplayer should be free. If there's ads in singleplayer, the whole game should be free.
Also, it's very important that it's context based. Billboards in games having real commercials is okey with me, but like I said, it should give something back to the player if we have to see real ads in games.
Boff @ Aug 2nd 2007 5:22AM
I can see both sides to this and really don't know which side of the fence I'm on.
On the one hand, as many have said, we pay good money for these games and it does feel a bit like MS/the game publishers are 'selling out' a bit to the advertisers.
On the other hand, yes we pay for games but most of us here probably pay for satellite or cable and get plastered with ads almost constantly.
I fully agree with the 'if it fits with the game' opinion and DO think it can add to the realism of the right type of game.
But what others have said about bending over backwards and taking one from the advertisers also rings true.
Product placement would be more subtle and I think less obtrusive than these billboard ads.
Personally, I think the ads are here to stay whether we like it or not (unfortunately) so we're gonna have to put up with them.
But I hope it never, ever gets as bad as it is on TV. That will be a sad day indeed.
scaught @ Aug 2nd 2007 9:58AM
I agree with #12 (OTAM). All of this advertising and the games are STILL $60?! Advertising in XBox Live and that is still full price too?
If advertising was a way of off setting production costs and allowed the publishers to offer a cheaper product, then I would say advertise away. But that doesn't seem to be the case. So I say fuck the ads. I don't want them. In fact, I will boycott any company I see advertise in a game. So fuck 300 too.
Ryan @ Aug 2nd 2007 10:16AM
Sorry for the double post.
Anyway who cares if its already in cable and tv and movies...they've pretty much always been that way...
With the games it something that we've been used to and now they're trying to make extra money for nothing.
I agree 100% with the guy who said that he plays to escape that part of life... you cant be born and escape advertising anywhere...to me that is fucking bullshit that products are paraded to you before you ever have a chance to see that there are other options
Boff @ Aug 2nd 2007 10:56AM
And we all know it's not about cheaper games it's about more profit.
Sammy D Kat @ Aug 2nd 2007 1:06PM
I think that as long as ads are appropriate to the context (no Oblivion ads) & relevant to the consumer (no Depends ads), people will be open to seeing them. This is the case for just about any type of advertising, whether in-game, on TV or on the street.
People who are against advertising always sound like naive communists who think that they're owed something from the world (Wolfrider). Virtually no major music tours can occur without some kind of commercial sponsorship. Radio itself is promotion to get people to buy records & go to concerts.
The cost & risk involved with developing games, records, movies, and just about any other product is extremely high & most people don't want to have the full amount passed onto them.
phil @ Aug 6th 2007 12:12AM
I love capitolism and i think that is cool as long as it isn't blattent or obvious. I don't like how the ad in that picture looks really well lit compared to the rest of the level.