Product Placement

[Omikron]

Was anyone else annoyed by the rampant product placement in this game? Energizer batteries, verizon smart phones, the very beginning starts with the Wake's in a Lincoln which prominently displays Microsoft SYNC in the dash.

I know they are a small studio and have to recoup the costs of the long development cycle but c'mon.

[Humpypants]

I prefer to see something I'm familiar with than "Microhard" and "Gizer Battery"

Jokes on them. I won't be using any of those products unless games force me to update my windows OS

[TPoppaPuff]

I found the constant, terrible Twin Peaks references more annoying. Twin peaks was fun to watch (the first season and a half anyway), but this game is not. Constantly poking me in the shoulder and pointing at all your shoddy Twin Peaks knock offs doesn't make you clever, Remedy. Nor does it make up for your shoddy story and constant padding out the gameplay by ruining the story. "Oh, I kidnapped her. Meet me over there! ...Oh, you're there now? ...Well now we're over here, on that other mountain top!"

Eff you, game.

Actually, I'm gonna go ahead and say that if you want a Twin Peaks like experience from a video game, play Deadly Premonition first, not Alan Wake.

[Xande]

no

[ZeroHistory]

Hehe, good point. I noticed Verizon, did not give two hoots about Energizer though as I could care less what brand the batteries are, not that important. But yes, seems as a rather clumsy product placement. Not that it spoils the game or anything, but it sure doesn't help.

[BlueScreenOfDeath]

The batteries make sense but the phone stuff doesn't. I'm at no risk of using Verizion as I'm English so such advertisements are wasted on me. Does make me laugh that there's an achievement for watching an advert for it, though, like... that's trying too hard.

[Omikron]

Publicado originalmente por TPoppaPuff:

I found the constant, terrible Twin Peaks references more annoying. Twin peaks was fun to watch (the first season and a half anyway), but this game is not. Constantly poking me in the shoulder and pointing at all your shoddy Twin Peaks knock offs doesn't make you clever, Remedy. Nor does it make up for your shoddy story and constant padding out the gameplay by ruining the story. "Oh, I kidnapped her. Meet me over there! ...Oh, you're there now? ...Well now we're over here, on that other mountain top!"

Eff you, game.

Actually, I'm gonna go ahead and say that if you want a Twin Peaks like experience from a video game, play Deadly Premonition first, not Alan Wake.

Yeah, Twin Peaks was subtle and odd and made you work to figure out what was going on. Alan Wake is very lineat and the story is way too heavy handed. It looks good and does create a good atmospere but it doesn't have the sublte nuances that made that show great.

Publicado originalmente por ZeroHistory:

Hehe, good point. I noticed Verizon, did not give two hoots about Energizer though as I could care less what brand the batteries are, not that important. But yes, seems as a rather clumsy product placement. Not that it spoils the game or anything, but it sure doesn't help.

I guess it just stuck out to be right away, maybe I just am way too aware of these things. I just think when you are trying to scare someone with an unfamiliar world product placement ruins the illusion. I remember seeing a video on youtube where they asked David Lynch (creator of Twin Peaks) what he thought about sponsorships in games. His response was "It's boolsheet"

[Omikron]

Bah, sorry for the spelling mistakes. I meant sponsorship in movies, since he's not a game designer.

[williew705]

I noticed the adverts as well. It harkened me back to the days of Tennage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 on the NES, with the relentless Pizza Hut ads.

[VindooZero]

I rather have ads that really exist than fake ads which are based of real ads. As long as they don't mention it in the game to market the product or shove it in your face, then I really don't see the problem.

[ZeroHistory]

Publicado originalmente por Vindoo Zero:

I rather have ads that really exist than fake ads which are based of real ads. As long as they don't mention it in the game to market the product or shove it in your face, then I really don't see the problem.

Well they actually _do_ shove it in your face, hence the thread... :)) Well, people could get different impression, after all the issue is not that important. But I don't think that the game would have suffered if they were a tad more subtle with product placement.

[VindooZero]

Publicado originalmente por ZeroHistory:

Publicado originalmente por Vindoo Zero:

I rather have ads that really exist than fake ads which are based of real ads. As long as they don't mention it in the game to market the product or shove it in your face, then I really don't see the problem.

Well they actually _do_ shove it in your face, hence the thread... :)) Well, people could get different impression, after all the issue is not that important. But I don't think that the game would have suffered if they were a tad more subtle with product placement.

I don't really experience that way but maybe some people do. I actually didn't even know Verizon was a real company until they were shown in the news for tapping into peoples phones and such xD

[Kmt219]

The Product Placement doesnt really bother me, but I enjoy the "Night Springs" (Twilight Zone) Episodes that you watch on TV.

[Omikron]

Publicado originalmente por Vindoo Zero:

I rather have ads that really exist than fake ads which are based of real ads. As long as they don't mention it in the game to market the product or shove it in your face, then I really don't see the problem.

I think the one that tipped me over the edge was in the 8th DLC chapter called "The Light House". Towards the beginning there is a cut scene where the camera has an upshot of wake. He then drops his phone which falls face down in slow motion so it takes up about 1/3 of the screen and it's a verizon phone with VCast on the screen. The camera stays on this shot for a pretty long time. After Alan finally does pick up the phone he remarks at how amazed he is that the GPS is still working (Verizon phones even get service in your dreams apparrently). Shortly after this Thomas Zane chimes in with "Alan, can you hear me now?"

It doesn't get much more blatant than that.

[Silencer]

Product placement like that in games doesn't really bother me, I do mind if they make me watch adverts for their other games though.

The best thing in this is the verizon billboards, they just look like the actual image is hosted by verizon and is unavailable, so you get a crappy res 'Verizon' logo as the 404. ;)

[Shakespeare]

It's a little more overt, here, especially with the film-like tone of the game, compared to something a little less grounded, but I didn't find it too distracting. It could have been worse, though - they could have been plastered on the HUD like games that use in-game phones! (I'm looking at you, Most Wanted series)