Some Savvy Publishers Are Now Using Trophies to Sell Ads

Utter, utter, scum. Advertisers are filth and Bill Hicks had it spot on in his rant about them.

I'm only buying games that do this preowned from here on in.

They have no shame lol

Does this mean vegetarians and nut allergy people can never get Platinum?

That's horrendous.

ok i can understand if say a game uses a certain item that actually has a use in the game because they sere sponsored by them and they used that money to make the game (Cup Noodles in FFXV come to mind) but to have them on a trophy something that is permanently connected to you account is just wrong and in my opinion crossing the line

Is this not down to the WWE being sponsored by Snickers and KFC? As such I imagine this is more down to WWE and has little to do with 2K Games.

who cares? it doesn't effect any of us.
also they used Snickers in 2k17 and RedBox in 2k15 so it's nothing new.

Fruity Delicious, Delicious Fruity! You decide! Bah Gawd, they're Skittles! https://youtu.be/PFIewQRbu4M

Hmm who thinks that this kind of brand penetration works? I wouldnt get a trophy and then go, you know, I DO need a Snicker bar after that trophy.

Yeah, part of my issue with it would be with the permanence of the trophy on your profile forever after. I don't mind a little advertising in my game (although I don't play many sports games, I imagine there are sponsorship ads along the courts and fields of play and on the jerseys, etc just like in real life ... same with the racing games with company logos plastered all over the cars and on the racetrack) as long as it doesn't detract from the gameplay, but to put it on a trophy does seem pretty sorry of them. Those are achievements that show on one's profile and seem to be a bit too invasive. Not to mention the slippery slope. Over time, will this "taint" our games trophy lists whereby games will have a certain percentage of their trophies sponsored, which ultimately influences how a game is developed. Will games with no potential for product endorsement be at a financial disadvantage if they can't get sponsorship? Will we see ridiculous trophies like a PetSmart trophy in The Last Guardian, or Berkley Fishing trophy in FFXV? Sounds ridiculous, but so does KFC and Snickers trophies.

As a trophy hunter I find this a very distasteful approach.
But imagine the huge KFC and Snickers banners in our News Feed Tab, when one of our friends unlocks one of these two trophies.
I must admit, it's an awesome idea. I don't like, but clever nonetheless.

Ridiculous. If this is how developers want to market their trophies, my interest in collecting them will soon evaporate. Looking at the trophy description I fail to understand how there is any relevance to the unlock conditions.

Wonder how long it will be until there is a rewards portal where you sync your playstation profile; and you get a free burger or whatever for unlocking the trophy. Seems like the next step if this takes hold - which would really be terrible.

Not sure if this is 2K's doing or WWE forcing them to put these in. Wouldn't surprise me if it was. They've done things like this before.

I cant post how i feel about this.
This is a family friendly site after all.

Mention adverts in games, and as we've already seen, most people's immediate reaction is one of disgust. But there are games where - while they may not realise it - people practically demand advertisements.

Take FIFA for example. Or NHL. Fans of the sports demand authenticity, so the want the stadiums, the kits, the sponsors... all of which are, basically, adverts.

And yet they go nuts over a small trophy image.

Advertising in games is nothing new, of course. In the early 90s, Pushover from Ocean heavily featured the Quavers mascot of the time, and Zool from Gremlin featured entire levels made from Chupa Chups sweets and displayed their logo repeatedly throughout - real in-your-face stuff.

I suppose the effect on the price of games could also be a factor. Would people be more open to having paid ads in games if it meant the game cost them less? Or in the case of something like FIFA, EA have to pay a lot for various licenses, so playing Devil's Advocate, could there perhaps be a case made for them charging us more for the game, for providing the authenticity we demand? Although there's also a case that the authenticity helps them sell more copies, so maybe they could charge less. Swings and roundabouts.

For me, it's all about the placement. If the advert feels 'natural' - e.g. a Ford hoarding in FIFA, a Gatorade hoarding in NHL, or a can of Coke in a cutscene in something like Detroit - then I don't really have a problem with it; it helps a game feel more authentic. If it's in your face or feels like it's there just for the sake of making money like those 90s games mentioned earlier, then it's a bit different.

All that being said, I won't be buying this. Not because of adverts, but because I just can't stand wrestling.

@Paranoimia The advertising you describe is fine, for the sake of authenticity, but to go out of their way to create a trophy with the company sponsorship logo an/or description and copyrighted tag lines, well... in my opinion adds nothing to the authenticity or immersion of the game. In fact, it risks distracting from it.

This raises serious questions about the integrity of wrestling for me. Next you'll be saying they're not really hitting each other.

@DLB3 Yeah that's what I was thinking. The WWE does this all the time with their weekly shows so it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case.

@Th3solution Looking at the descriptions, what you have to do to earn them is entirely in keeping with the game, and has no effect on immersion one way or the other. What it's named and what image they give it makes no real difference.

If you had to do something 'unusual' and entirely unrelated to the game like, say, buy 3 KFC meals and 3 Snickers bars in real life to get codes, then redeem them on PSN to unlock the trophies, I could understand some anger.

But this isn't really any different to games like Project Cars 2, which have trophies like "Viva Ferrari" which actively force you to use a specific brand of car.

Retailers should update the description of the game with this:
"Men in glittering underwear who pretend to fight between a chat and the other! Proudly sponsored now by deadly sugar and fat dealers!"

@Paranoimia Yeah, I can see your point. The trophies appears to be typical trophy-fare tasks to do, so they probably haven't detracted or overly affected game design at this point. The linking and naming of these trophies to the sponsor is a little bit of a stretch though. (In fact, if they really wanted to be cute, I would have done these trophies the other way around and named the first one: "Doing reversals on you is so easy, it makes me snicker" for the 3 reversals in a match, and the second one; "Winner, winner, chicken dinner - KFC" for the winning 50 matches. I mean geez people, if you're going to shoehorn the product promo in then be a little more creative 😆)
In the end, I fine with these wrestling and sports games pandering to sponsors since I don't play them. It doesn't affect me. I just worry about the future of it if corporate money starts affecting our games. So if 2K wants to do this in their sports games - so be it, but if it puts some out of place trophy in Borderlands 3 called "Cleared out the Golden Arches Bandit Camp" with a logo of McDonalds for the trophy image, then I'm going to seriously reconsider my hobby.

This is far from new. The past few NBA 2K games before the current console generation had cheevos for the Sprite Slam Cam or the Gatorade branded ones like G Prime or G Performance. EA's NHL 13 had some branded with Honda. Didn't know where the fuss was then.

Maybe I should be offended by this, but I'm not. Advertising is a part of sports, so naturally it pops into sports games. Even if it looks out of place in out trophy cabinets.

@Rudy_Manchego
I recall a console maker including an app that would let a person order a specific branded pizza direct from their console...it was, quite literally, a touted feature of the console.

@Paranoimia
Except your achievements are now included in your friends' Whats New list, making you an unwitting (and unpaid) advertisement for KFC and Snickers.

You could always take the Don Mattrick approach. If you don't want the Snickers advertisement, don't win 50 matches.

@lacerz What's New is littered with ads anyway.

Old news, Dont get your snickers in a twist.

@lacerz hmmm so that is why I ate so much pizza!

Sadly our hobby is no longer niche. Its full mainstream so lets just call this the beggining of the end of what was a really great medium. Cant wait till sponsored games come out.

If you react consciously to these ads you can always go and grab a rival's food product instead. Chances are you haven't forgotten that Snickers or KFC exist and you can just grab any food that will satisfy your trophy inspired desire.

Didnt Fight Night have the Burger King on 360... Then there was Cool Spot.the Fido Dido game, the McDonalds game called Global Gladiators on megadrive alone...

Dont get why everyone is getting knickers in a twist over advertising going hand in hand with the empty husks that are valueless trophies.. arguably they are the perfect coupling of instantly forgettable and meaningless information.