SlashGear Japan
There has been a lot of talk over the last year about in-game advertising and how it will affect gamers. One of the most promising ideas has been to release a free game, supported by various advertisements. While some might not want to have a McDonald’s ad show up on the side of a building while gunning down enemies, I’m totally for the idea. The latest company to come forth and offer such a game is none other than id Software, makers of Quake.
It’s been a few years since I picked up a Quake title, as my fondness for these sorts of FPS games has lessened of late. However, they have teamed up with IGA to bring us Quake Live, which will feature a full community experience, stats, friends and more. The game will simply launch from your favorite web browser.
They haven’t gone into a lot of details as to what exactly the advertisements will consist of, however, they should not affect your gameplay. Also no word on when we can expect this to launch. So how many of you would play some free Quake if you had to see a few banners here and there? I know I’ll be up for it.
[via MaxConsole]
One Response to “id Software announces free ad-supported Quake title”
Hoq February 25, 2008
Not good. We’re already bombarded by advertising, and I have to resort to extraordinary measures – ReplayTV, Firefox with Adblock Plus, cancelling all of my magazine subscriptions because of the ever-increasing ads replacing content – just to stay sane when I consume media.
Advertising tends to under-value consumers. Y’know those annoying movie theatre commercials they play before the trailers? Apparently, they’re paying along the lines of 40 cents for wasting 7-10 minutes of your time. I don’t know about you, but ten minutes of my time is definitely worth more than 40 cents. This is because advertising is a crappy business model, as they MIGHT get 1-3% response from an ad. Frankly, if I produced results at my job 1-3% of the time, I’d be fired within a week.
Neutral