Video games should investigate dabbling in product placement as heavily as some movies do, just in case it can help provide an alternative to live-service monetisation via microtransactions, former Dragon Age director has suggested. Yes! Yes, I say, because every single game should follow 007 First Light’s lead and force you to choose between seven different colour variants of the same branded timepiece.
I’m serious, this is what the industry needs. The time is now. Everyone must pick a watch!
“Is there an opportunity for games to take a step back and think about different ways that we could make money? I think there is,” Darrah said in a YouTube video discussing the topic. “Product placement is a very small part of video games right now compared to movies and television. Maybe it could be a larger part of development. Maybe there are relationships there to be formed.
“Maybe we need to change the way that games go into subscription services. Maybe it’s not forever. Maybe they go in for a while and then they leave the same way that movies leave Netflix. I think that the overreliance on microtransactions is overemphasising certain genres and preventing other genres from flourishing.”
As much as I reflexively reel at the example Darrah provides of a film which covered a huge amount of its costs via product placements and/or brand partnerships, The Smurfs 2, he’s making a salient point. If it’ll help make single player games like 007 more economically viable and isn’t too jarring, dipping more into branding might not be the worst thing in the world. Provided it fits and isn’t just being used to boost already gaudy profit margins and executive paychecks. Sadly, I fear that last bit is exactly what it’d be used for.
Wait a minute, what am I saying? I’m supposed to be arguing in favour of branded watches for everyone here. A swanky wrist ticker for Morrigan. A space age time-telling gadget for Commander Shepard. Go all out. Give the protagonist of Far Cry Primal a crude little stone sundial strapped to their arm with animal skins.
All of them available in a variety of stylish hues designed to suggest you’re a marginally different sort of person. None of them offering any tangible gameplay advantages. It’s the only way to save the video games from live-service oblivion. Speaking of which, get over here Hero of Kvatch, I’ve got a Rolex here to go with your Imperial dragon armour.
