Let’s face it, guys: product placement is everywhere in video games these days. We’ve seen Snake using an iPod to chill out in Metal Gear Solid 4 and we might as well admit that racing games such as Forza and Gran Turismo are just big fat adverts for each of the car manufacturers who appear in each game.
The thing is, there’s clever product placement and there’s downright shameless product placement; but which is the worst? My top 5 worst, after the jump.
5. The Mini Cooper in The Bourne Conspiracy:
Let’s put it like this. The Bourne Conspiracy video game is rubbish, and one of the main reasons for this is because the car sequence is terrible. You only have to play the driving section of the demo (PSN and XBLM, folks) to realize the handling is loose, the voice overs annoying and the constant whine of the Mini’s engine is like nails on a blackboard, through a megaphone, inside your very own brain.
Of course, the worst part of all, is that the game sticks to its source material in all areas except from the vehicle. Bourne’s clothes are the same as they appeared in the films as are the locations, but for some reason Sierra figured they should throw in a new Mini rather than the older one featured in The Bourne Identity. And they also thought it would be a great idea to include a brightly-lit Mini dealership too. Well, they made this decision after BMW waggled some money under their nose, anyway.
Unfortunately, this is only making me think that BMW are desperate for their rather large supermini to grab the attention of gamers everywhere, and they could have chosen a far better game to do it with than The Bourne Conspiracy. For this reason, the new Mini in this game ranks in at number 5 on my list of shameless tie-ins.
4. Crazy Taxi’s destinations
Ahhh, Crazy Taxi, an oldie but a goodie. It’s also one of the earliest games I can remember that features a bunch of real-life destinations for you to take your fares. Pizza Hut, KFC, the now-extinct Tower Records, FILA stores and even Levi jeans shops could all be driven too with voice actors expressing their glee at going to “Kentucky Fried Chicken!” Color me about ten million times less enthusiastic, as it added absolutely nothing to the game and Generic Chicken Restaurant would have done it just fine for me. For that, Crazy Taxi’s silly, pointless destinations drop in at number 4.
What’s at number 3? Find out over the page.
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21 responses so far ↓
1 Brandonpop // Jul 9, 2008 at 10:13 am
I totally agree with you Yam. This advertising is crazy. And the Halo 3 Hype was unbearable, food with Halo 3 on it…… And seriously if the Halo fanboys (don’t mean to insult you) love Halo wouldn’t they already have a 360 instead of buying the “Halo” Xbox? Great Article!
2 DeathByWaffle // Jul 9, 2008 at 10:37 am
I have the helmet, and I don’t know what you are talking about when you say “its big enough for your cat to wear”. If I spent 2 minutes with a screwdriver and took out some of the inside stuff that makes the compartment for the disc holder thing, I could wear it.
And my head is not the size of a cats. That would be a little odd wouldn’t it?
3 heavenlyyeti // Jul 9, 2008 at 10:37 am
well, I see Halo 3 as the second-best game ever (behind Half-Life), so I enjoyed the Chief being everywhere. I’m sure everyone with an Xbox did too; they felt they were about to be given something epic. And yes, while the impressions of Halo where a little underwhelming afterwards, they wrapped up the story and created a perfect multiplayer game, plus forge (which lets you design levels from scratch now, btw).
And… Expect to see more Halo hype this year, because we have…
Halo Wars
Halo: Chronicles
Halo 4 (most likely)
But the thing that will get the most hype this year? Bungie’s new project. Look for it at E3. It’ll be the last thing they show at the MS keynote. See you there!
4 ProudlyAnAddict // Jul 9, 2008 at 10:41 am
haha if microsoft hadnt done so much advertisement I might’ve bought Halo 3 but I don’t buy games with huge ad campaigns it usually means the game is crap…luckily i was right
5 Jolley22 // Jul 9, 2008 at 10:44 am
Halo advertisement was out of halo but still true.
6 Jolley22 // Jul 9, 2008 at 10:45 am
The advertisement wasn’t in Halo at least but still true .
7 paulmess7 // Jul 9, 2008 at 10:46 am
I don’t understand the Spartan Helmet thing either…
8 blades144 // Jul 9, 2008 at 11:26 am
My favorite is the CompUSA billboard in Burnout Paradise.
9 Legendary Hooligan // Jul 9, 2008 at 11:53 am
yeah the hal0 ad campaign was crazy, but people seem to forget that’s not out of the norm. they ri[p on microsoft for hyping halo, then ignore that EVERY crappy kids movie that happens to have a big enough budget to look interesting splatters three times as much advertisement as Halo over everything you see. stupid corporate america.
10 Mike // Jul 9, 2008 at 12:06 pm
what about the pure cheesness of the splinter cell advertising, was it wrigleys? i found it funny and annoying at the same time somehow
11 Diablo // Jul 9, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I thought the “The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff”, an expansion pack entirely dedicated to buying IKEA products would have made the list.
12 Yamster // Jul 9, 2008 at 12:51 pm
@Diablo: They’ve done tie-ins with H&M before but at least they are contextual, to be fair.
13 Orange // Jul 9, 2008 at 12:53 pm
R6v2 advertised in its DEMO.
14 Ian Lamont // Jul 9, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I don’t believe that I just clicked through all three pages of an article that really should be on one page, but your list is good. World of Warcraft, incidentally, is a popular product tie-in in China, although I have yet to see a TV ad in the U.S. featuring obvious WoW characters.
15 Yamster // Jul 9, 2008 at 1:51 pm
@Ian Lamont: You’d be surprised. Toyota advertised its Tacoma 4×4 using World of Warcraft. Look it up on YouTube.
16 Nexus // Jul 9, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Hey, let’s take 15 of our finest Halo fanboys and go plunder, then torch Yamster home… then we go visit Lono&Doc&Dave, repeat.
Great read though.
17 SovanJedi // Jul 9, 2008 at 5:03 pm
This list is missing Biker Mice from Mars on the SNES. That game is more shameless than anything on this list. Just go play it to find out why. Seriously.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’ve got seventeen Snickers bars to munch my way through.
18 artofwot // Jul 9, 2008 at 8:45 pm
So… I’m the only one that loved the Mountain Dew Gamer Fuel?
19 Black Rabbit // Jul 9, 2008 at 9:57 pm
You forgot the Discovery channel short.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX3zrTy1_AY
20 fluffy_nuts // Jul 10, 2008 at 6:04 am
seriously, who really cares about a few adds, the more product placement they have then the more money that goes to making something better. as long as they don’t take it too far like McDonalds in space or Toyota in the jungle.
If your on a race track or sports field then expect to see some adds, would you rather real adds or something rubbish made up by the developers in it’s place, So relax with complaining about adds, it DOES NOT affect your game play, if it does you need to get out more
21 Andrew // Jul 10, 2008 at 11:13 am
I liked Crazy Taxis just because I’d rather take people to KFC or Taco Bell instead of going to Tennessee Boiled Turkey or Burrito Gong.
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