Product Placement in Video Games

The 90th or so time you speed by the same Burger King in Rockport, it starts to dawn on you: There aren’t any other types of fast food joints in this fictional, video game town.

Also, what’s with the billboards? There are only a few different ads, and they’re all for guy stuff like Edge shaving gel and Axe deodorant. What’s more, it’s impossible to play this title—the Electronic Arts street-racing game Need for Speed: Most Wanted—and miss the branding on the Cingular text-messaging service your character uses to get the latest tips or trash-talking challenges.

Product placement and in-game advertising are nothing new—the ‘80s-era Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles once promoted a pizza chain in an arcade game—but it’s a trend that is rapidly turning from a novelty into a serious business. Nielsen Entertainment, the television tracking firm, has started to follow such advertising and estimates this will be a $75 million market in the United States this year and will grow to $1 billion by 2010.  (Washington Post)