14 DAY TRIAL // NCsoft has announced a deal with ad supplier Double Fusion on the option to advertise within the City of Heroes/City of Villains universe. The advertising that Double Fusion selects and adapts is to be presented using the billboards that are present within the game universe, which until now only have used fake adverts.
Brian Clayton, who is the boss of NCsoft's NorCal studio and oversees the City of Heroes MMO, has said that: "Double Fusion... Have demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of our community and fundamentally understand how advertising can bring value to the players when executed gracefully, and in the appropriate context."
NCsoft is insisting on the fact that once the real advertisements go live sometime during summer, the players will get an option to remove and replace them with the old fake ads. It's entirely up to the player if he or she wants to see these real-world commercials in the fictional world of superheroes in which the MMO is based.
The developers made it clear that placing theses ads is a good way to generate revenue for a niche MMO like City of Heroes, that does not have the player base that games like World of Warcraft enjoy. Developers clearly stated that: "Our development costs are ramping up in a major way as we look to literally double the team this year to accommodate big plans for the short, medium and long term. Optional in-game advertising is another revenue stream that helps us to accomplish all of this at no additional expense to our players."
City of Heroes is seen as having a good return of investment rate and no financial troubles are known to exist at NCsoft, but with Tabula Rasa eating up more of the company's funds, it only makes sense to try and capitalize on revenue options other than subscriptions. And in the context of City of Heroes, the idea of in-game advertisements could really work.