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submitted 2 days ago by mereo@piefed.ca to c/games@lemmy.world
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[-] Zarobi@aussie.zone 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Don't forget the Monster energy drink in Death Stranding…

I'm pretty sure 90% of Fortnight characters are an ad now. Every real car in driving games like Gran Turismo is licensed and an ad. DotA2 did a Monster Hunter collab, which are basically ads.

Honestly I don't even mind this kind of unintrusive ad. They can stay, and collabs can even be fun or enjoyable. That seems to be what they're mostly talking about, alongside branded consoles to bring prices down. Or adding sponsored DLC to older games to bring back interest and make side money at the same time.

I think that's the distinction here. If it's something that fits naturally into the game and it's part of the game, it's ok. We've had this for years and nobody is complaining about it. But if they're talking about animated banners or 30 second ad breaks between matches, they can fuck right off with that.

Early experiments included a custom Mountain Dew stadium “playable experience” in EA Sports College Football 26 and Visa branding in EA Sports FC.

"As we do these things, it’s ultimately around like, you know, are the players engaging with it? Are they talking about it? Is it ultimately leading to the brand being talked about and engaged in a positive way?”

[-] ohshit604@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I played Alan Wake (the first one) recently for the first time and was surprised to see Verizon billboards, Energizer batteries/flashlights and Lincoln cars in the game.

I personally didn’t mind it and treated it as an Easter egg opposed to an actual ad, if it were a pop-up or something that halted me in my place I would be annoyed sure but minor things like that kinda give it a bit of realism.

Note; I did want to link the Alan Wake x Energizer/Verizon/Lincoln collab here but then I got this pop-up on the first site that came up -

Pop-ups like this make me not want to use your product or service.

Edit; Kotaku didn’t care for my ad blocker so I’ll link them instead of fandom -

https://kotaku.com/alan-wake-remastered-is-ditching-the-energizer-batterie-1847658945

[-] Zarobi@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

It's very interesting that remakes and remasters seem to be stripping out the ads / in-game branding because the licensing expired or didn't extend to the remake of the same game. For example Death Stranding remake is also removing the Monster cans and replacing them with generic energy liquid. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but it is a thing.

[-] kurcatovium@piefed.social 2 points 20 hours ago

They surely won't let Monster get free ads, what are they? A charity? Either pay up or your cans get deleted!

[-] Zarobi@aussie.zone 0 points 19 hours ago

Drinkus deletus

[-] rozodru@piefed.world 4 points 1 day ago

it's not 90%, it's 100%. Whenever a new movie comes out or a tv show is popular or a musician releases a new album...whatever there will be an in game "event" and new skins in Fortnite. it's totally a free to play ad with microtransactions for said ads.

It's like cartoons of the 80s and early to mid 90s. the cartoons themselves were just ads for the toys. I mean hell the first Transformers movie in the 80s was just a massive commercial to introduce the new toyline by quite literally killing off the previous line. And I for one loved it.

[-] brsrklf@jlai.lu 3 points 1 day ago

I mean is even Fortnite a game or a random Skinner box platform at this point? Can't remember the last time I saw someone mention its gameplay.

this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
258 points (100.0% liked)

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