The End Of Advertising. - What will companies do in a post advertising world?

[Judge Dredd]

AAA gaming has a problem. They got everything they wanted, and now hate the world they've created and don't know what to do. I assume this is true in other areas of business, but gaming is what I know. What do you think will follow? Either what should, or what will.


Context:
I've always doubted if advertisements worked as well as companies believe, but it's clear they're losing the ad war. People have had enough. We all know about adblock, and the arms race of advertisers and blockers as companies demand more and more of your life. Only boomers really watch TV anymore, and cinemas were killed by COVID and Netflix.


AAA gaming has been in decline for over a decade. We can argue when it started, but I'd put the rot starting between 2008 and 2012. But while we can talk about how day 1 patches, live services, and DLC all reduced quality and customer trust, it's the marketing side that's relevant here.

Publishers loved all digital and pushed it hard. No need to print discs and have retail take a cut. They could sell at full price and keep it all to themselves, but now are complaining that, without "retail partners" displaying their game to foot traffic, that's a huge avenue of free advertising gone.

They could always rely on shill media, but more than a decade of payola and political bullshit means no one trusts them.

PR and social media? As with shill media, the days of getting a thousands of sales from big name account to retweeting you are over. Twitter likes don't equal sales.

Even brands don't do it any more. There was once a time you could sell shit in a bag provided it had a Star Wars logo on it. These days the brand is poison.

That only leaves direct customer engagement. This only works if you have a product people want, which you likely don't have after a decade of DEI/ESG.


With companies still shovelling millions into marketing budgets, where does it all go, and what's the future going to look like if ads are no longer a viable means of promotion?

 

[Syzyg]

Post-advertising is already here. It's the anthropomorphization of corporations into influencers or instead of that, becoming memes. RAID SHADOW LEGENDS becomes a household name because it is shilled by YouTubers paid thousands to promote it when it would have otherwise died like all the other mobile games it copies from. Duolingo's Owl becomes a Creepypasta figure that has a taste for human flesh, despite it being the mascot for a language learning app.

Hell, Several YouTubers were sponsored by that new Black Samurai game, dropping its name for all of their themed videos and shorts. Instead of RAID SHADOW LEGENDS, we will soon hear more videos sponsored by AAA game studios to try and boost sales of their latest product.

 

[Sexy Senior Citizen]

With companies still shovelling millions into marketing budgets, where does it all go, and what's the future going to look like if ads are no longer a viable means of promotion?

With any luck, AAA developers will go out of business so indie developers can fill the gap. No more rehashed games, franchise reboots, or DEI nonsense- the market can decide what the best games are, without the big developers getting in the way.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

You are greatly overestimating the "average consumer" who is by all means niggercattle and this generation buys more into advertising and intrusive and unethical marketing schemes that any generation prior. Mobile games with no gameplay and only micro transactions and gambling are the biggest thing right now. Gen alpha and zoomer completely normalized it and most of them are app creatures nor familiar with blocking ads. They also parrot all their opinions of paid tiktokers and astroturfed "influencers"


Monopoly Go generated more than a billion dollars in revenue in less than a year. Yes, fucking Monopoly Go. This is the future of vidya. Games as a service and shitty mobile games full of jewish usury schemes.

I didn't even know such a thing as Monopoly Go existed, if you are disconnected from the normiesphere it will always take you by surprise just how retarded it truly gets. Like stumbling in the first page of youtube on a fresh account and wondering why all these mongoloids have 20 million subscribers. The answer is niggercattle.

 

[BrodyDaMan]

Advertising does work, it worked fantastic forever and still works now. Normies freely talk about how ads they saw on instagram and tiktok made them spend money for stupid things they never used more than once and didn't need in the first place. I installed Revanced on my parents' phones, and at some point that version stopped working and they just kept watching youtube with ads. They didn't care at all that they had to get through 2-3 ads at once per video even after experiencing youtube without it for months. Normies just don't care. At work I see people pull out their phones to show a friend something immediately. Two ads play for minutes, and they just smile and wait for it to be finished. I don't think they care, and they will even quote ads or talk about being influenced without caring other than brief moments of revelations that never go further than "That's kinda weird?". However...

Hell, Several YouTubers were sponsored by that new Black Samurai game, dropping its name for all of their themed videos and shorts. Instead of RAID SHADOW LEGENDS, we will soon hear more videos sponsored by AAA game studios to try and boost sales of their latest product.

I think you're right. Even though normies couldn't care less about watching ads, mid to large corporations are investing in influencer marketing instead. Two decades ago this was very tough, because the only influencers who had enough influence for their ads to matter were famous actors, rock stars and maybe some talk show hosts and comedians. Now there's literally millions of influencers who have been 500k to 30 milliion+ followers, and even better, they offer far more opportunities to shill a product because they make content and appearances regularly, usually weekly or even daily. Streamers get 5-10 hours of watch time a day. It's much cheaper and more convenient to do influencer advertising now, and so you see most advertising shifting towards that. Hell, just recently I was watching a nice Hacksmith video where they mod a bionic arm for some crippled british streamer. Suddenly, they start talking about how cool "Naraka: Bladepoint" is. And they keep pushing it throughout the video. I can't imagine how much normie influencers like Mr. Beast push ads and the normies swallow it without even considering skipping.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Thank goodness for ad blocking. And if ads being pushed on people went out, there's 2 words to that: good riddance.

We can argue when it started, but I'd put the rot starting between 2008 and 2012.

2008 was the year after "the year the Internet went to shit", and then 2012 was when "Occupy" fell and "woke" rose.

 

[Lithuophile]

indie developers can fill the gap

Oh boy, I can't wait for Undertale x Celeste 17: Sans Returns (Trans Furry Edition)

 

[JohnnyG]

I'm kind of surprised that integrating ads into games hasn't become ubiquitous (or maybe it has and I'm unaware?). I don't mean like playing an ad during a load screen, but in any open world game, just having actual billboards and signs and in-game screens playing real world brand ads.

I guess there would be issues like companies that don't want their ads on a billboard behind a GTA player beating a hooker to death or whatever, but given the (corporate dystopian) potential, surely marketing teams must salivate about turning games into Minority Report:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJEXMz6P3oo

 

[BirdUp]

I'm kind of surprised that integrating ads into games hasn't become ubiquitous (or maybe it has and I'm unaware?). I don't mean like playing an ad during a load screen, but in any open world game, just having actual billboards and signs and in-game screens playing real world brand ads.

that is a thing with some racing games like the crew

 

[Cedric_Eff]

Yeah there is one way to advertise. YouTubers. Word of mouth via social media. Shoot, even just putting yourself on anything can be considered an ad these days.

 

[BrodyDaMan]

I'm kind of surprised that integrating ads into games hasn't become ubiquitous (or maybe it has and I'm unaware?). I don't mean like playing an ad during a load screen, but in any open world game, just having actual billboards and signs and in-game screens playing real world brand ads.

I guess there would be issues like companies that don't want their ads on a billboard behind a GTA player beating a hooker to death or whatever, but given the (corporate dystopian) potential, surely marketing teams must salivate about turning games into Minority Report:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJEXMz6P3oo

Companies did get into it for a while in the late 2000s and early 2010s, three mainstream examples I think of are:

Web of Shadows

Saints Row 2

Prototype

IIRC, any game that was connected to the internet would even change ads out over time, like GTA 4 and Crackdown. I think at some point most companies decided that it wasn't really worth it, since "digital ad-space" cost a ton of money for not much result, so it's mostly reserved for sports games and such now.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

if you are disconnected from the normiesphere it will always take you by surprise just how retarded it truly gets.

It's true. I only ever hear about the hot new thing once it already has three billion concurrent users and playing requires signing in with your bank's account and routing numbers.

 

[LazyLizard]

if you are disconnected from the normiesphere it will always take you by surprise just how retarded it truly gets. Like stumbling in the first page of youtube on a fresh account and wondering why all these mongoloids have 20 million subscribers. The answer is niggercattle.

very accurate, take a company like ubisoft, just pushes out the most generic boring goyslop, it's clear as day what it is yet somehow it sells like crazy making hundreds of millions, i just don't understand these normies who have such low standards.

 

[JohnnyG]

IIRC, any game that was connected to the internet would even change ads out over time, like GTA 4 and Crackdown. I think at some point most companies decided that it wasn't really worth it, since "digital ad-space" cost a ton of money for not much result, so it's mostly reserved for sports games and such now.

Yeah I would've expected companies to be able to sell all kinds of "benefits", like running ads for whatever duration they want, micro-targeting down to showing different users different ads in the same location, be able to track exactly how long a given ad is in someone's view, etc.

And possibly even selling it as less intrusive / more realistic to gamers, because instead of having to wait through an ad to play or something, you can be immersed in a world with all your Favoritest Brands!

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

Like others said, that's where they have influencers to sell things to people now. Ads aren't just commercial breaks on TV or some junk on the sidebar you block these days. All these content creators are free advertisements to anyone who watches them, which is gonna be normies.

For everyone else, they have paid shills. Reddit is absolutely full of them, but it's well-known they exist in many other places too. Basically all "journalism" is going to be paid promotion, and if you want to look up the game or movie, then you get Wikia/Fandom (or something like Gamefaqs) which is also nowadays entirely paid promotion.

Monopoly Go generated more than a billion dollars in revenue in less than a year. Yes, fucking Monopoly Go. This is the future of vidya. Games as a service and shitty mobile games full of jewish usury schemes.

I didn't even know such a thing as Monopoly Go existed, if you are disconnected from the normiesphere it will always take you by surprise just how retarded it truly gets. Like stumbling in the first page of youtube on a fresh account and wondering why all these mongoloids have 20 million subscribers. The answer is niggercattle.

Isn't that the remake of Monopoly where they took out jail?

 

[Derrick]

2008 was the year after "the year the Internet went to shit

You're 15 years late.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

Isn't that the remake of Monopoly where they took out jail?

its one of those games that plays itself and you pay when it tells you to pay, just like RAID, the monopoly board is just visual thing, mechanically is just a slot machine. You don't even play against other people like in the board game, just roll, wait for rng and pay when it prompts you.

You're 15 years late.

the internet went to shit when courts started ruling spam emails as free speech. The cancer was inoculated from the beginning

 

[mindlessobserver]

Considering I had to stage in intervention with a family member who was going on and on about Temu, I assure you advertising is still working just fine.

 

[Pissmaster]

Companies did get into it for a while in the late 2000s and early 2010s

A few earlier examples:

Crazy Taxi had KFC and Pizza Hut


George Foreman's KO Boxing had a version with a big Doritos logo


Maniac Mansion had Pepsi


Tapper had big giant ads for Budweiser and Suntory (Japan). Even the between-level minigame had their slogan if you won.


Not to mention all the advergames out there, like Cool Spot and @Pepsi Man.

I think at some point most companies decided that it wasn't really worth it, since "digital ad-space" cost a ton of money for not much result, so it's mostly reserved for sports games and such now.

It's still happening. The Yakuza games have had Suntory products purchasable for ages, and the newest one has big obvious Uber Eats signage.

 

[Morch Ponkey]

Considering I had to stage in intervention with a family member who was going on and on about Temu, I assure you advertising is still working just fine.

Their success is not just due to advertising.

The Temu App is heavily gamified. You get coupons for spending over a certain threshold.
The little daily phone games they offer get juiced from purchases. And they give free shit if you spend enough time on the app interacting with the gamification. It is very good at creating it's own whales in the same way a mobile game does.