Home is where the ads are

by Nick Doerr { Mar 20th 2007 at 6:00PM }

Along with anything you get for free on the internet, what never fails to follow it? When you call in for a free bottle of shampoo or something, what do you end up getting in your mailbox every week for the rest of your life? The answer is obvious to all of us: advertisements. Pop-up blockers have inhibited most advertisements plaguing the internet, but what about the PlayStation HOME? Two in-game ad firms, Double Fusion and IGA, are looking into the possibility of clogging your virtual senses with advertisements.

Not only are ads going to be scattered across the virtual HOME world, they will generate a steady source of income and continue to keep our less-than-perfect PlayStation Network completely free. What we wonder is how advertisers will approach this medium -- since it's a virtual world and not a linear video game, they can do pretty much whatever they want, once they've given Sony the cash. Here are a few ideas what we can expect and feel free to add your own:

Fully 3D advertisements -- like holograms. Nothing like a 3D Victoria's Secret model acting as a fountain in the middle of a park.
Billboards -- the staple of advertising
Messages/Signs -- we don't mean signs on the street. We mean messages or signs as in flooding your virtual inbox, mailbox, whatever way people can leave a note at your "personal space".
Items/Effects -- stock a fridge in your personal space with Red Bull energy drinks for free, thanks to the advertisers. Better examples await, but I'm getting aggravated.
Advertiser Plants -- not the botanical kind, either. We mean advertisers that actually create a HOME account, make friends, and push products. Viral marketing, if we may.

We'd go on, but you really should do yourselves a favor and read the article from GameDaily.biz -- it's really important since this is an issue we'll all be dealing with in a few months. Perhaps some won't be bothered at all. Others will get kind of sick of seeing a magazine spread out in front of them when they just want to play some LittleBigPlanet.

Tags: HOME, PlayStation 3, Playstation3, PS3, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

aragorn @ Mar 20th 2007 7:31PM

anyone surprised? anyone? no?

There's no such thing as free anymore, and sometimes, I'd rather pay a fee than having to deal with this BS... which is why I buy television shows on dvd.

D @ Mar 20th 2007 10:45PM

or you could be like XBL and pay $50 to see advertising in game. Face the facts, people are going to get blasted by ads whether we want it or not. There isn't a big enough push against it so it will happen. Myself, I'm used to it and I tune it or go out of my way not to buy the overly intrusive brands.

mccomber @ Mar 20th 2007 8:30PM

Well, we see advertisements in the actual games already, why not HOME as well? As long as they don't actually have complete free reign to do anything at all, it shouldn't be too bad. As someone who works in advertising/design, I see it as being a new medium that may end up being pretty cool depending on whose hands certain accounts end up in. Look at some of what's been done in Second Life, which wasn't really as commercial to start with.
Besides, real life is already full of ads, and will continue to fill with them; anyone else remember Minority Report, and it's dead-on portrayal of where we're likely headed in this regard?

Killer @ Mar 20th 2007 9:12PM

I can just see the spam mail now...spam spam spam spam spam spam spam...you got Spam! I hope they have the spam cannon like in Quake 2. Everyone can go around shooting Spam at each other. Hell, that would be entertaining. I would buy a PS3, if that was a reality.

ryeclifton @ Mar 20th 2007 9:13PM

VIRAL ADS...

There should be a "viral" campaign in Home where all of the avatars get sick, a virus if you will. Then you have to seek out a virtual medicine from a virtual walgreens.

Killer @ Mar 20th 2007 9:17PM

Another great ad suggestion. Virtual mailboxes with virtual mail carriers. Just imagine it's like life, recreated. Imagine you go to the mailbox, open it up and bam! "OMG, Free cheese bread sticks, sweet!" "We're going to Pizza Hut."

crazy penguin @ Apr 16th 2007 3:11PM

oh common, you are all being extremely stupid. i think advertisements will be awesome. imagine it, there will be this stand in some mall in home, and a virtual person will be handing out mugs, that say Starbucks on them, free. SO HORRIBLE. or some space is created by IKEA letting you have some free furniture, hoping you will like it virtually and put it in your real home, or just end up buying virtual IKEA furniture. common, think of how cool the advertisement can be.

KillarClown @ Mar 21st 2007 12:42PM

I like the idea that it might be really futuristic like in that cop movie where the guy gets thawed and fights the other guy who has a bitchin fade.. all hollographic and glitchy animated billboard ads with asian chicks dressed as flight attendants selling doritos.. Question: In the daytime will the products be geared towards stay at home parents? mr clean? tampax? ultramatic? excuse me while i go use my 3 sea shells.

aragorn @ Mar 21st 2007 2:19PM

D: huh?

Charl3z523 @ Mar 21st 2007 5:17PM

I'm glad ads will be in there. They've never bugged me. It makes the world seem more real and gives something to look at.

Although the "ad plants" I admit can be very annoying.

Scott Krueger @ Mar 21st 2007 8:26PM

I listen to advertisement on the radio.
Radio Stations are Free.

I like free, so paying via advertisements is my ideal way to go.

I was paying $50 a year for XBox Live to watch Burger King Ads on my 360. Not just Online but on my Dashboard Blades as Well!