| Set On Stun |

It’s the future. You, as Nathan Spencer have been released from jail and given back your super powered bionic arm to go into Ascension City and fight the good fight. And as you swing and shoot about the tattered remains of this ruined city there right in front of you are a row of …. the cleanest looking Pepsi Machines known to man. Lookout! Careful not to swing into the giant Pepsi billboard mounted atop that building. Then you set your sites on shooting that cool  grappling hook to get to the burned out wreckage of the office building and you set your scopes on a billboard only to see realize it’s a pristine ad for Nvidia?

Nothing says a bleak future like shiny overturned Pepsi machines

It’s one thing if there were a ton of other “old” product references in the game but there aren’t. Add to that all the Pepsi and Nvidia stuff looks like it survived whatever bomb wrecked the city without a scratch.  Stupid you say? What’s the point you ask? Well the point is this, unlike product placement in movies which, these days is part of the natural landscape of tons of films (and we now tolerate it), videogames are still tussling with the notion of in-game advertising because often times, like it this year’s Bionic Commando redux, it just doesn’t work. Not is there only no reason for it, most of the times it doesn’t make sense. This year we had some shining examples of that like in Need For Speed Shift, Tony Hawk Ride!, and Dragon Age: Origins.  It’s not entirely surprising to see ads in a sports game since most of professional sports these days is sponsored by something (Meineke Car Car Bowl anyone?). But in a game about a mythical world or the future where stuff like this isn’t supposed to exist? Not so much. And unfortunately for Bionic Commando the game was also bad even though it was a highly anticipated release and got a lot of  press.

Nvidia -- how did their billboard survive the apocalypse?

It’s understandable why advertisers would want to get in on this trend. You have a global gaming market, big  release titles that often outshine box office blockbusters and millions and millions of gamers who are willing to spend money on games. And just to be clear, we’re not completely dismissing  the notion of in-game advertising. In some games, if it’s part of the landscape and setting that works with the overall game then  sure, why not (sports games would seem odd without it). If you’re walking around an actual city why wouldn’t you see a brand-name billboard? Does that translate into ROI for the advertiser? Not exactly but it gets them massive visibility if the game does well.

Unfortunately, gamers, the people advertisers are trying to reach, have not been so welcoming of this idea. Most of them see it as a nuisance while others downright hate the idea. And with games like Bionic Commando out there to prove their point, it’s easy to see why. A large portion of the games currently available or in development simply have no need for in-game ads because either the story or universe created for the game doesn’t really fit with products that advertisers assume gamers would connect with. Just because you drink Pepsi doesn’t mean you want to see a Pepsi ad in a game especially when it’s completely out of context.  Even in games where  one might assume there would be in-game ads — there aren’t.

Take a game like GTAIV for example — here you would have a perfect opportunity for in-game advertising, one would think, because it’s a game in present times, in Liberty City. But instead they took great measures to fake everything up. The reality is that if you’re playing a videogame in a fake world with made up people why would you have “real” ads? It’s bad enough we already have to get through 5 load screens giving props to everyone before the game even starts.  These games are supposed to be escapism in its finest form which means escape from things like commercials and sponsors popping up.

So it is with great pleasure that we give it up for Bionic Commando and their indestructible product placement as the worst in-game advertising of 2009. Congratulations on a terrible game filled with terrible ads. Maybe next year you can add some DLC where the bionic arm has alternate attachments for computer video cards and a soda can opener.

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