This series of Playable Futures articles considers how the design, technology, people, and theory of video games are informing and influencing the wider world. You can find all previous Playable Futures articles here.
The relationship that video games share with brands and advertising is a long-term one.Early examples such as Coca-Cola’s boldly assertive Pepsi Invaders, or Johnson & Johnson’s Tooth Protectors – both clones of Atari classics released in 1983 – wrestled with how to represent products and brands within the context of primitive visuals and limited technological muscle. After a rash of less than dazzling games made from the ground up for individual brands, in the 1990s – as games’ influence seeped evermore into popular culture – more thoughtfully integrated product placements emerged. A scattering of versions of Sega’s arcade icon Crazy Taxi, for example, made outlets like KFC restaurants and Levi’s stores into mission goals.
Later still would come Flash games promoting the work of pop stars, the notion of live, updated billboards in game environments, and the complicated ascendance of ads as a means to monetise mobile games.
