We’ve all been a victim to in-game advertising at some point on our gaming lives. Be it a simple billboard in Forza or an in your face product placement, we’ve all be there.
Some are able to recall the product while most tend to ignore it completely, if possible. The in-game advertising industry is planning to grow into the billions by 2014 and Sony might be giving them a huge boost.
Back in 2011, Sony filed for a patent, seen here, titled “Advertisement Scheme for use with interactive content”. What this means is that while deep in a story/action of your newest $60 purchase, a warning will pop up telling you that a commercial will be aired momentarily. That’s right, in an age of TV recorders where we fast forward TV ads, they’ve found a way to throw in a commercial while playing a video game. Imagine doing your thing in Grand Theft Auto V only to be irrupted by a fabric softener commercial.
This “scheme” as they call it might not even come into fruition, but the mere fact that its there and being talked about is enough to raise alarm.