# Product Placement on The Sims!

- Author: Joichi Ito
- Date: 2002-09-20T00:54:58Z


first sighted on BoingBoing posted by Cory
Reuters on MSNBC
Happy Meals, Pentiums coming to video game world

       Detailed terms of EA’s multimillion-dollar deal were not available but it will allow Intel’s familiar jingle, its product logo, and computers using its Pentium 4 processor to appear in the game.

       Players in the game also will be able to buy a McDonald’s kiosk and sell the company’s branded food products, earning ”simoleans,” the game’s currency. Eating that food will also improve their standing within the game.
I remember when I was on the Sega "dream team" to think about how to set up the network for the Dreamcast, (I guess that was a bad dream...) I was pushing very hard to get product placement inside of the games. We tested things like sending objects such as a Christmas tree into Sonic the Hedgehog. Everyone always comes up with the idea of product placement in games in the desire to get advertising revenues, but this Sims Online deal seems to have been executed elegantly and it sounds just great. Hats off to the EA team for this. The integration into the game sounds cool too.

Product placement in movies has been going on for a long time and movies like Wayne's World did a great job of making fun of it...





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