Jeez. So I bought Need For Speed Underground 2 (for PC, suckas! Beat the console people by three days!) and my initial impressions are that (a) it's fun and (b) the product placement has gotten a little retarded. There's huge billboards everywhere for Old Spice and Edge shaving gel and Burger King (one in-game message: "Check out Suchandsuch Auto Tuning Garage, it's in Fictionaltown Heights right next to the Burger King(R)").
I'm not entirely accustomed to the idea that video games include blatant product placement (and yeah, I know all about Tapper and Avoid the Noid and that one game featuring the 7-up Spot). I actually do look forward to the day where baseball games feature actual sponsor billboards in the parks instead of crudely-rendered graphic design school dropout logos for fictional hardware and tire stores. But I'm wondering if in 5 years it'll be as prevalent in video games as it is in cinema.
― MC Transmaniacon (natepatrin), Sunday, 14 November 2004 05:53 (twenty-one years ago)