Ads Galore Potentially Coming to Splinter Cell: Conviction

[[MyIS]Zips]

Ubisoft, in a recent pitch to Microsoft is about to take in-game advertising to all new levels. Simply put, you probably won't like their ideas as they currently stand.

Imagine this: you're playing one of Splinter Cell Conviction's many "choose your own torture" sequences, as described by Ubisoft's Jeffrey Dickstein. As you're slamming a terrorist's face into a urinal, you might ask yourself, "is this the new Degree deodorant I should buy?" (Seriously, these are his words.)

This is actually the pitch Ubisoft delivered at Microsoft Advertising's Gaming Upfront presentation in New York this evening. In-game advertising is rapidly growing, but has typically been relegated to sports and racing games. Splinter Cell Conviction breaks convention by being neither. Expect both static and video ads to appear throughout the environment -- including during the game's lengthy torture sequences.

In addition, Ubisoft also showcased "heat maps" to potential advertisers. These heat maps showcased areas in the map that the player will more than likely travel during their adventures, and thus are high traffic areas ripe for advertisers to promote their products.

Placing ads in logical places within a game world is one thing, but having them during torture sequences? That seems to be a bit much. What do you think about this?

[RYKUU]

Wow...what strange pitch.
But i don't think Sam Fisher would be saying "Hey, while i am beating you and trying to find reasons to my daughters death, I would like to tell you about the new Mcdonalds Grand Angus: 100% beef, red onion, cheese, TIMES 2, lettuce and tomato! man sure makes me "lovin it", anyhow, where were we?
it would really ruin the mood of the scene.

However the advertisements in-game would be ok i guess...as long as it isn't too much.
The AMD ads in Chaos Theory were okay, you would expect to see them on a computer.