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Home is where the ads are

Nick Doerr
Updated ·2 min read

Along with anything you get for free on the internet, what never fails to follow it? When you call in for a free bottle of shampoo or something, what do you end up getting in your mailbox every week for the rest of your life? The answer is obvious to all of us: advertisements. Pop-up blockers have inhibited most advertisements plaguing the internet, but what about the PlayStation HOME? Two in-game ad firms, Double Fusion and IGA, are looking into the possibility of clogging your virtual senses with advertisements.

Not only are ads going to be scattered across the virtual HOME world, they will generate a steady source of income and continue to keep our less-than-perfect PlayStation Network completely free. What we wonder is how advertisers will approach this medium -- since it's a virtual world and not a linear video game, they can do pretty much whatever they want, once they've given Sony the cash. Here are a few ideas what we can expect and feel free to add your own:

  • Fully 3D advertisements -- like holograms. Nothing like a 3D Victoria's Secret model acting as a fountain in the middle of a park.

  • Billboards -- the staple of advertising

  • Messages/Signs -- we don't mean signs on the street. We mean messages or signs as in flooding your virtual inbox, mailbox, whatever way people can leave a note at your "personal space".

  • Items/Effects -- stock a fridge in your personal space with Red Bull energy drinks for free, thanks to the advertisers. Better examples await, but I'm getting aggravated.

  • Advertiser Plants -- not the botanical kind, either. We mean advertisers that actually create a HOME account, make friends, and push products. Viral marketing, if we may.


We'd go on, but you really should do yourselves a favor and read the article from GameDaily.biz -- it's really important since this is an issue we'll all be dealing with in a few months. Perhaps some won't be bothered at all. Others will get kind of sick of seeing a magazine spread out in front of them when they just want to play some LittleBigPlanet.