Submission + - Individual in-game advertising in upcoming titles
Eagerly anticipated games like Need for Speed: SHIFT will feature the technology that continuously collects "anonymous" information about users, sends them to the Massive database for analysis, and downloads advertisements to be shown in the game. All that insidiously, without the users' explicit consent and out of their control.
Which raises further concerns about privacy, security and quite frankly, customer abuse.
The technology has already been implemented, and was present in older titles. For example, Far Cry 2 released in October 2008 by Ubisoft Montreal had it. You could discover that if you cared to read the manual up to the last pages:
- "This game incorporates technology of Massive Incorporated ("Massive") that, when activated, enable the presentation of in-game advertisements and other in-game objects which are uploaded temporarily to your personal computer or game console and changed during online game play. As part of this process, when Massive technology is activated, Massive may have access to your Internet Protocol address. Your Internet Protocol address, and other basic anonymous information, available to Massive are temporarily used by Massive for the general purposes of transmitting and measuring in-game advertising."
However, it seems it was not used at the time for some reason. This time, be assured it will be.
How are we supposed to react to something like this? Would you feel concerned about software that collects personal information and sends it so that you get more particularized ads in a game you paid for? Wait, wouldn't that be called adware? But wasn't adware free before?
And, gratified by the success of this technology, what would be the next logical step of companies like Massive? Wouldn't they seek new publishers and use it in other software? Mind-googling isn't it.