APB features voice chat adverts, The Onion predicts the future again

Posted on 29. Jun, 2010 by James Dilks in Editor's Blog, Gaming, PC

Eurogamer reports that Realtime Worlds’ forthcoming online cops and robbers game APB will feature audio adverts delivered via voice chat. It strikes me as remarkably similar to this faux news report from The Onion, reporting on a fictional development in Google’s phone technology. The video is titled “New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users’ Ears”. The only real differences between the two features are that APB’s doesn’t pick up on words you’re saying, and that the developer claims they only feature every three hours, and when you enter an area, so shouldn’t affect gameplay.

The problem is that, as many commenters on the Eurogamer article have noted, if this goes by unopposed it’s conceivable that adverts will be become more frequent and more intrusive. There are already games that use ingame billboards to advertise real world products, and this is the next stage in a potentially long process.

There is an ever growing trend for game developers and publishers to monetise their content beyond the initial purchase of a game, and this is understandable given the cuts facing the industry and the global financial situation. Time will tell whether this is a mistake on Realtime Worlds’ part, but I’ve got a feeling the implementation is creeping enough for them to get away with it.