A Wider Net

Recently Electronic Arts, the largest publisher of video games, released “Battlefield 2142” - the latest entry in a highly successful franchise that began with the WWII-themed “Battlefield 1942″. The game seems to be getting very good reviews and it will probably sell fairly well. There is, however, a bit of controversy surrounding in-game advertisements that may hamper sales.

A little while back, EA announced they were working with IGA Worldwide to provide in-game advertisements for BF 2142. This announcement didn’t prevent a backlash from gamers and press when the game launched, however. Several prominent game sites proclaimed that the game shipped with a piece of paper (not the EULA) that warned that the game would install tracking software (spyware) that would track personal information, including browsing habits, for the purpose of targeting ads to the game. This triggered a firestorm of negative blog entries, articles, and requests to boycott the franchise and all of EA.

It appears that this was something of an over-reaction. In a statement from EA, and a similar statement from IGA, they clarified the function of the software to be limited to tracking the location of the user (so they can, for example, serve ads in the correct language) tracking the time of day, and reporting the ad impressions. No personal information is tracked. In fact, IGA reports (and I’ve seen similar studies from others) that 70% of gamers find that real ads are a net benefit to a game’s immersive feeling - they prefer real ads over fake ones produced by designers.

So - why all the hubbub? Obviously tracking personal information is a sensitive topic, and spyware is at the top of the list of evils. People spend all kinds of time and money ridding their systems of spyware, or preventing their infiltration in the first place. Once the word “spyware” got linked to the game the story blew up.
But the ad insertion concept isn’t necessarily bad. To afford to build top-tier titles, publishers will need this revenue source. Gamers have reported that they like the ads, as long as they are a complimentary part of the experience. Marketers will like this space because it’s well-targeted (even though it’s still above-the-line), and highly measurable.

Lessons learned: I think EA needed to do a better job of explaining the product to consumers, and a MUCH better job of handling the resulting wildfire. For the latter part they need a blog.