Dubious Honors

Most Despicable Use of In-Game Advertising

You're running across an unfamiliar planet while a horde of disgusting aliens chase you. You blast them with a laser and escape to safety. Finally, you get a chance to take a breath and survey the landscape...and there it is: a billboard looming above you, advertising a station wagon. There's nothing like out-of-place or pervasive advertising to knock you back to reality. Even in sports and driving games, where you expect to see ads, it's possible to end up seeing too many ads. In 2009, we encountered a number of equally deserving games, but only one can walk away with the not-so-coveted award for the most despicable use of in-game advertising.

Our nominees include the pristine and indestructible soda machines from Bionic Commando, the mobile phone-like interface and sponsored achievements of Tony Hawk Ride, the iPhone ads in Return to Mysterious Island 2: Mina's Fate, the DLC-peddling NPC in Dragon Age: Origins, and the surreptitiously new billboards on classic race circuits in Need for Speed: Shift.

Editorial Nominees

Editors' Choice Winner

Click to reveal winner

17 Comments

  • mattngc

    Posted Dec 26, 2009 3:56 am GMT

    Adverts suit a sports game. It matches real life. For it to be despicable it has to feel out of place. FIFA 10 it actually improved by adverts on billboards around the pitch.

  • Tomrock101

    Posted Dec 23, 2009 6:14 pm GMT

    FIFA 10 was bad. Advertising a ton on those billboards

  • Nuggetol

    Posted Dec 23, 2009 6:33 am GMT

    I don't see what's the big deal with advertisments in games. I really don't, as long as it's destructible. It's great to destroy that Pepsi billboard XD.

  • STARS_Splinter

    Posted Dec 23, 2009 5:00 am GMT

    I never noticed the Pepsi in Bionic Commando. Guess that shows how blatant it was to me.

  • tomcrole

    Posted Dec 22, 2009 4:20 pm GMT

    persenaly i kina like in game avtising like this it makes the world feel more real some way (i like it in r6 because i had seen the adverts in real life) as long as it is put infront of videos im about the watch that take ages to loaged up the advert because of my rubish isb

  • KriobaKeys

    Posted Dec 21, 2009 4:58 am GMT

    NFS EA are a load of money grabbers!!!

  • 91210user

    Posted Dec 20, 2009 11:59 pm GMT

    Tony Hawk Ride, you have a BIG view of T Mobile, with stakers shelling out their dirt... shows how much T Mobile want to advertise there contracts to teens.

  • efc91

    Posted Dec 19, 2009 1:14 am GMT

    TH Ride

  • Racer850

    Posted Dec 18, 2009 11:08 am GMT

    NFS shift.

  • girdz

    Posted Dec 18, 2009 10:53 am GMT

    Bionic Commando. Completely took me out of the experience. Probably a good thing all things considered with the game being so mediocre.

  • lukas1051

    Posted Dec 18, 2009 10:46 am GMT

    I can't say I really noticed any of these, but I had to vote for Tony Hawk, we all know what Activision are like...

  • MidgetMe

    Posted Dec 18, 2009 9:17 am GMT

    I would of chosen PES 2010 as well, certain branded footy boots gave better stats to your pro than others... Shamless.

  • English-Lion

    Posted Dec 18, 2009 9:03 am GMT

    I vote for DLC Salesman (Dragon Age: Origins)


    Dragon Age The best game of the year!

  • gamedude2020

    Posted Dec 18, 2009 7:52 am GMT

    how can ashes cricket be on this. its has to have advertising billboards or it wouldn't be a cricket ground.

  • viper_najem

    Posted Dec 18, 2009 4:58 am GMT

    I hate Pepsi...

  • tig1979

    Posted Dec 18, 2009 2:07 am GMT

    I would have gone with PES10 if i could, yeh advertising is around a footie pitch but every single one of them is advertising a forthcoming game on ESPN all the way round the pitch!!

  • JustPlainLucas

    Posted Dec 17, 2009 9:43 pm GMT

    Went with Dragon Age. The idea of advertising in a fantasy game just seems so very wrong.

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Table of Contents

Winner Reveal Schedule

  • Dec 21
    Special Achievement
  • Dec 22
    Dubious Honors
  • Dec 23
    Genre Awards
  • Dec 24
    Platform Awards
  • Dec 25
    Game of the Year

Readers' Choice winners are announced Jan. 27, 2010