So last night I fire up a game of Madden 10 a little after midnight, local time. As the first play is about to be run and players line up, I am slapped square in the face with a giant McDonalds advert popup right above the info bar at the bottom of the screen.

I think perhaps its late and I am hallucinating, because THATS NEVER BEEN THERE BEFORE. So the play ends, I select a new one, and as my players line up...there it is again. Are you FREAKING kidding me? Every play in every game has the same OBTRUSIVE popup.

I paid for this game already. EA, you have my money. Don't drop those ads in the middle of my gameplay. Its VERY obtrusive and unavoidable, between its size, placement, and coloring. EA, if you need money then go whore your interns in a back room somewhere...leave the product I paid for alone.

This is on top of them nickel and diming us in both football games this year, from touting a create-a-school feature that turns out you need a code to use (one user per console, thank you) or pay an additional fee if you're renting (or if you're an additional profile on a console). Then there's the dynasty/franchise cheats...er, sorry...accelerorators that can add another $20+ to the $60 you paid already. Where does it stop? Better yet, why is Microsoft (and I'm sure Sony as well) allow this crap?

Here's one final thing to think about. EA shuts down its servers for playing sports games, or so I've heard because I won't play them online anymore. So now that it costs you to join or start an online franchise in Madden ($10 without the code), what happens when they close off that server? Now you've paid additional money to access something and its been taken away from you?

EA really needs to stop. These are but a few examples of their heinous actions in gaming. This ingame popup really pissed me off though.

Product placement in games has always led me to boycott that product for a while. At least till a month after I beat that game. And really, EA has kind of improved. They can't get their shit together when it comes to their annual franchises. I'm lucky at any rate cause Madden doesn't ship in Dubai! SUCK IT EA!

What can we do!

No one else is offering them competition!

Can you get a picture or something? I wanna see this thing for myself.

If valve were doing it people would praise them saying they are shifting the cost away from gamers or that they were investing the proceeds into development of the next HL.

As long as it doesn't interupt the flow of the game, who cares? Surely over weight gamers are the perfect audience for a McD's advert?

NoMoreSanity:
Because ads give them more money. Just ignore them.

Well thats the problem, its obtrusive. That means "its in the way; unavoidable". Its a big honking ad similar in color to the pic posted above with the Big Mac. It doesn't cover the players, but because of its odd placement and its coloring (which in no way blends in with anything else) you can't help but feel its in the way. Plus if I'm going through my pre-snap reads and trying to make adjustments, its that much more in the way because I can't help but look at it.

And this isn't because its EA...granted its one more thing EA has mucked up, but any other game that had obtrusive advertising would bug me as well. However, considering all the crappy things EA has done with their sports games lately (largely since Peter Moore joined them...coincidence?) just set me off.

I don't mind the Snickers ads...they're not a part of gameplay. I thought the in-game adverts in Saints Row 2 were clever. They were UNOBTRUSIVE, appearing on billboards on various streets that maybe you noticed or maybe you didn't. They didn't appear throughout the game slapping you in the face and screaming "LOOK AT ME DAMMIT!" like this ad does.

I want a Big mac now, you swines!

the way i see it is that adds can give you (the company) $$ and top of the range looks that don't cost as much as $70

Isn't that the whole idea of an ad, to slap you in the face and go "LOOK AT ME. Now give me your money." And why the hell do you buy madden games once is enough. They're mostly the same.

EA has been doing this for awhile now. Though in Fight Night Round 3 they were promoting Burger King.

You don't play sports game because of ingame ads? I haven't seen them as that big of an issue until last night, but you may be playing different games than I am.

I don't have a way to take a pic and I don't see any others posted online yet, but I'm sure they will be up eventually.

Has anyone else seen this ad yet btw? Like I said, it started after midnight local time. I had played a few games leading up to then and no ads, and then the first game I started after midnight had them.

Edit: Overlord, this Madden is actually different gameplay-wise. Its the first Madden I've bought new since 07. The franchise mode is still pretty barren and Superstar mode is pointless, but the gameplay (and graphics) have been upgraded enough to warrant a purchase imo.

i forgive you.... this time

pp2:

Here's one final thing to think about. EA shuts down its servers for playing sports games, or so I've heard because I won't play them online anymore. So now that it costs you to join or start an online franchise in Madden ($10 without the code), what happens when they close off that server? Now you've paid additional money to access something and its been taken away from you?

As horrible as this is, it's more a problem with online console games in general than EA specifically.
You are reliant on Live or PSN that the publishers keep paying M$/Sony to run servers for their games. In pretty much all cases publishers will cut the pay once sales start to tail off. The most extreme I can think of was MGS3:Subsistence's online mode which lasted only a few months before Konami pulled the plug and left everyone on their ass.

It's terrible, money grubbing and dishonest I agree with you, but until console games allow anyone to set up/buy space on a server it's not going to go away.

fix-the-spade:

pp2:

Here's one final thing to think about. EA shuts down its servers for playing sports games, or so I've heard because I won't play them online anymore. So now that it costs you to join or start an online franchise in Madden ($10 without the code), what happens when they close off that server? Now you've paid additional money to access something and its been taken away from you?

As horrible as this is, it's more a problem with online console games in general than EA specifically.
You are reliant on Live or PSN that the publishers keep paying M$/Sony to run servers for their games. In pretty much all cases publishers will cut the pay once sales start to tail off. The most extreme I can think of was MGS3:Subsistence's online mode which lasted only a few months before Konami pulled the plug and left everyone on their ass.

It's terrible, money grubbing and dishonest I agree with you, but until console games allow anyone to set up/buy space on a server it's not going to go away.

Thats normally not an issue with XBox games though, since the online is largely P2P. Sony has the publishers pay for the servers, so eventually those have to end. However most Live games can be played whenever. I know my son still has his group he plays CoD2 online with, and that game is almost 4 years old.

This is one of many reasons why it was a mistake to let EA host their own games (aside from their servers sucking), but without that concession they wouldn't have allowed Madden to be played online.

i never see such ads in 2k games

Dont expect anything but exploitation from EAs sports franchises, since those bankroll the company & will be bought by most of their audience even if there was nothing but shit on the screen.

Pretty sure I heard the NASCAR Kart Racing game for Wii had a powerup that plastered an irritating ad on the screen for a matter of seconds. Typical EA. The ads in Burnout Paradise weren't too bad, but EA always seems to go overboard on the in game ads. I'll agree that some of the ads in Fight Night/Madden might be there to make it feel more like Sunday night football, but enough is enough at some point.

I'm now eating a Big Mac

Popup ads in console games?! Totally uncool!! Let's hope this remains an isolated incident!

Fight Night 4 has this in pre-fight loading screens and between rounds. This is a LOT of advertising considering that a round is only 3 minutes long.

Thankfully it's not in /every/ fight, but when it does happen, it's annoying as hell. Except for that retarded BK coach, it was better in FN3 where the companies would sponsor the fight. It's NORMAL for businesses to sponsor athletes so that they can get their brand recognized. It should be done in a natural way.

I didn't mind the Axe advertisements in Rainbox Six Vegas. When you're on the streets of Vegas, you will naturally see big billboards, and adboards on the street. That's normal and appropriate ad placement, I took cover behind the Axe adboard on the street and got a big close-up of it and it didn't weird me out at all because the ad was exactly where it was supposed to be. If the logo was planted on the back of a Rainbow agent's helmet, then that would be a problem.

And now...the popup is gone. I just played a few games in my franchise with nary a sight of the offensive ad.

And like you said Kelbear, if its part of the environment the ad is no big deal. Billboards and what-not, stuff you might notice or might not. But this was over the top.

EA has been doing a lot of this lately. There is the whole deal with the store in The Sims (yes, I play The Sims) and now Madden (haven't played it myself but you are not the first one to complain).

I guess if we just buy loads and loads of copies of Brütal Legend maybe they'll go back to the much nicer EA Games that we saw last fall ^^

You sound like you're giving a rebellion speech in some revolution film or something. This is obstrusive advertising in its very weakest form, trust me.

Take new risks? This is EA we're talking about, right? The only "risks" I've seen EA take in their sports games is to make us pay for features that used to be standard (online franchises) or cheats. Or to have extra golf courses for TW available for purchase on the day TW releases. Remember back when the number of golf courses included in TW was a bragging point for the series? Now its a dozen (maybe) and pay extra for the rest.

And Mirror's Edge was not good, neither was Crysis. We all could have lived without those.