14 DAY TRIAL // It has been revealed that a private company connecting advertisers and video game publishers, going by the name of Double Fusion, has rolled out a new technology just yesterday, allowing "advertisers to mount last-minute ad campaigns in games the same way they use spot TV ads," as msnbc.msn.com posts. Basically, the technology should come in very handy to advertisers, because even after the coding is completed, content can be changed via an Internet connection.
Anything for the in-game ads right? Well, they didn't launch ad-supported versions of three Ubisoft games earlier this week, now did they? Anyway, according to the very same website...: "The technology will be shown to developers at the Austin Game Developers Conference starting on Wednesday.
Game designers now designate and hard-code locations for in-game advertising during the development process. After the coding is completed, advertising content can be changed via an Internet connection, but locations for ads cannot be changed or added." Wednesday is today - just in case you haven't sipped any coffee this morning,
So when you're going to play Gran Turismo 5 on your PS3 (a game full of ads by the way), the second time you enter a championship, some of the stuff written on the walls and banners may look different. That may present a problem you know... You may think I'm crazy, but bear with me for a minute.
A racing sim such as Gran Turismo takes gamers to the edge of steering, accelerating and braking precision. Some of the tracks are so twisted and sometimes not so well lit, that one must use landmarks to know what to do next (well, in the first couple of months anyway). As such, one may use an ad as a landmark: "when the TRD sign appears I have to apply the brakes a little and then take a 40 degree turn to the left, hitting the gas fast just as I coume out of the turn" - that's what I used to say to myself when playing R11 in the first GT.
Overstretched? What an idiot, you say? Maybe, but the point is, are we actually going to feel the difference when in-game ads are updated? Share an impression in the comments column below.