In-game advertisements are being added into full-priced games weeks after launch, adding insult to injury as gamers deal with skyrocketing prices.
Microtransactions and loot boxes have been a controversial topic for some time, but a new greedy trend is emerging in the video game scene. Unskippable advertisements are making their way into video games weeks after they hit store shelves. Most of these games are full price and jammed-packed with microtransactions as is. Adding unskippable ads in full-priced games is bad enough, but adding them weeks after launch is absolutely ridiculous and does nothing but deteriorates the company’s image as well as the game itself.
Although unskippable ads in video games are nothing new, they’ve always been limited to free-to-play games and mobile titles until recently. UFC 4 became the center of controversy last month after EA included a disruptive in-game ad for the television series The Boys just two weeks after its initial launch. This resulted in a massive backlash from fans, causing EA to retract the advertisement and apologize for its inclusion.
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It appears that 2K Games is taking a page out of EA’s playbook after inserting a similar ad for Oculus in NBA 2K21. This isn’t the first time 2K has experimented with ads in its popular basketball series. Some fans may remember the NBA 2K19 advertisement controversy after a Reddit post went viral over an ad that displayed during a loading screen. This continued in NBA 2K20, but users quickly found out they could block these ads by turning off 2K TV in the game’s settings. It doesn’t appear gamers have the same luxury in NBA 2K21.
Having intrusive advertisements in free-to-play games is understandable, but including ads in $60 games is absurd. If full-price games start using the same monetization tactics as free-to-play games, what’s the point of buying them? The worst part about NBA 2K21′s advertisements is that 2K added them 2 weeks after the initial release. Most video game publications already reviewed NBA 2K21 by the time the advertisements made their way into the game, meaning NBA 2K21′s review score isn’t affected by the advertisements. If these ads were included at launch, they would undoubtedly play a role in the game’s review process, most likely bogging down its score.
It seems like video game companies are aware of the negative effects in-game advertisements have, so they wait until most publications review the game before adding them weeks later. The video game community should not tolerate this blatant manipulation of the system. Critics and gamers have the right to know all the ins and outs of a game before purchasing it at full price. If these ads continue to play a role in video games, then companies need to including them at launch instead of sneaking them in weeks later.
Many video game companies will argue that advertisements are necessary due to the ever-rising cost of video game development. While developing a AAA video game is extremely expensive, most are loaded with microtransactions and loot boxes that bring in millions of extra dollars. Take-Two Interactive, 2K Games’ parent company, made 410.7 million dollars last year from microtransactions alone. It’s estimated that the average AAA video game costs around $60-$80 million to develop. If video game companies are already making up for the high costs of video game development through microtransactions, adding pesky in-game ads is completely unnecessary.
Shady monetization tactics in video games have grown exponentially worse this console generation. Including cosmetic content behind paywalls is one thing, but stealthily adding unskippable in-game advertisements weeks after the game’s initial launch is taking things too far. Gamers need to voice their concerns about these anti-consumer antics and let video game companies know that they won’t tolerate such abysmal business practices. If video game fans decided to stay silent, then in-game advertisements may become commonplace next console generation.
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