Sony has announced that they will be allowing third party advertisements in-game for the Playstation 3. Many people are complaining about this, although the truth is that most in-game ads actually make the game more realistic.

First, gamers do have a legitimate reason to be upset. We are paying upwards of $50 a game, so it shows that in-game ads would just be greedy from the publisher’s side. Some are saying in return for in-game ads the game should be cheaper. This would be nice, but most companies are greedy. They want additional profit, not a lower price for gamers to pay.

A positive side to in-game advertisements, however, is that they make the game more realistic. In an urban environment, would you rather see an advertisement from a real company or some fake ad? Same thing for racing games - on the sides of the track, ads from real companies would make it more realistic than fake ads. In these settings the ads can play a good role by making the environment more realistic. If you can relate more to the environment in the game, it seems more realistic.

The best solution for everybody would be to cut games’ prices in exchange for in-game ads. That won’t happen for the majority of games however, so gamers shouldn’t be expecting it. So people should stop complaining about in-game ads and take a fresh look at them and how they add to the environment of the game.

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