Advertising in video games
These forms of product placement are common, which led to the advertisement technique being applied to video games to match evolving media consumption habits.
Billboards, storefronts, posters, apparel, vehicles, weapons, fliers, sponsored product placement, and the interplay between the player and these elements in the game allow for a great degree of virtual advertisement.
[10] Unlike television commercials and digital ads, which can be avoided by using DVRs and ad-blocking software, advertisements embedded within video games cannot be bypassed.
These ads are usually branded inline, and TechCrunch reports that they have the potential to gain fast traction in Google's AdMob Service.
[9][6] Examples of this type of advertisement would be virtual billboards and updates that introduce new items into the game like clothing brands to dress characters or different cars.
[14] The earliest custom video games featuring integrated brand messages were developed and distributed on floppy disk.
The first floppy disk advergames were developed to serve dual purposes—as promotional incentives that drive response and as media that deliver awareness.
[15] The first in-box CD-ROM cereal box advergames are General Mills's Chex Quest (promoting the Chex brand) and General Mills's All-Star baseball (starring Trix Rabbit and his friends playing baseball against Major League teams and stars).
Although TTL advertising can be an enjoyable experience for players, excessive "link-chasing" can feel obstructive and discourage them from diving deeper into a game's story-line.
In 2019, a survey conducted by deltaDNA found that 94% of free-to-play video game developers incorporate some form of in-game advertising.
[29] The ESRB also includes an Advertising Review Council (ARC) that oversees the marketing of video games in the United States and Canada.
[32] The ARC ensures that the game being advertised is accurately represented and is not being marketed toward parties below the suitable age range.
[33] The report, published in June 2014, suggested that children as old as 15 did not recognize that advergames were adverts and had their food choices influenced without their conscious awareness.
[34] Based on these findings, the University called for "urgent government action to protect children from the subconscious effects of advergames.
[35] Operators of websites or online services are barred from handling the personal information of children under the age of 13 without verifiable consent from a parent or guardian.
[36] Representatives Edward Markey [D-MA] and Joe Barton [R-TX] proposed the Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011 as an amendment to COPPA.
[37] The bill would have extended COPPA to prohibit companies from distributing personal and geolocation information knowingly collected from minors for use in targeted advertising.
"[38] Since the death of the 2011 bill, Markey and Barton have continued to spawn similar Do Not Track Kids legislation in both chambers of Congress.
Some games ask users to provide personal information, such as name, gender, and age, then display targeted advertisements based on these characteristics.
