In-game advertising in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, which was the biggest release of last week, had something else hidden (not in the shadows) inside. Ubisoft signed a number of advertising deals with leading companies, allowing them to advertise their brand inside the game. These companies include AMD, Nokia and Axe – better known in the UK as ‘Lynx’, the deodorant company. While Ubisoft claim that the advertising is done “in a thoughtful and selective way to enhance the realism of the game,” we aren’t so sure if gamers will agree.

According to Ubisoft North America publishing VP Jay Cohen, “one of the major advantages for developers in partnering with consumer brands is that we can achieve this realism while helping advertisers reach their target market.” This is undoubtedly a good thing for advertisers; with gaming becoming increasingly popular it makes perfect sense to advertise in this way. Unless the next Splinter Cell sees Sam Fisher sporting a nice pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses when he doesn’t need his night or thermal-vision, Pro-G can’t see this being a bad thing.