7 Insultingly Obvious Product Placements That Nearly Ruined the Game

when done subtly product placement can be a discreet way for brands to get their products in front of consumers without the whole thing feeling like a commercial [Music] like i say discrete sadly video games are often unable to match even this level of admirable understatement when it comes to product placement leading to a long and storied history of in-game advertisements that promote products with all the quiet subtlety and restraint of someone with their hand trapped in a sandwich toaster here are seven of the most egregious examples do enjoy but also beware of minor spoilers for the following games [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh hey mp hey how you doing yo yo yo ricky what's up man yo what up mp hey yo look good looks on the internet today bro yeah yeah nba 2k 22 is ostensibly a basketball game although if you're playing the story based my career mode you'd be forgiven for not realizing that considering how much time you spend skateboarding and running errands for rappers to kickstart your music career yeah yeah what's your order man large coffin black cool i got you i'll be back in a bit the city where my career is set is absolutely riddled with adverts product placement and real world brands but nowhere is it more windmill dunked into your face than when jake from state farm turns up hey neighbor are you jake from state farm jake here is a character from tv commercials for state farm an american insurance company that will mean absolutely nothing to anyone outside the united states but that's okay because jake is here in his capacity as a fan of your character mp as such it's normal that the two of them engage in extremely natural not at all forced conversation about let me just check my notes here basketball oh yeah it's a basketball game i forgot oh hey what are room for ump it's good to know if that wasn't bad enough jake then goes on to start the state farm catchphrase with your character excitedly finishing it for him like how it would definitely happen in real life remember like a good neighbor stay farm is there i was waiting for you to say it man hey look i appreciate this jake from state farm yeah hey listen pleasure's all mine keep doing your thing my thing which is basketball of course hey at least jake has this incredible offer for us as i show my support i'd like to offer you my official look can't join team staphon without the drip right hey look i guess not bro okay let's see how that looks okay i take it all back this was totally worth it [Music] the wwe 2k games are currently on a hiatus because the last one looks like this her hair is going because if this passage eventually she's going to wrap around her throat before that though wwe 2k games were getting on an nba style hot streak of in-game product placement that culminated in wwe 2k18 which legitimately featured branded achievements the first of these achievements is called snickers full stop hunger to win greater than sign hunger which i mean catchy it's awarded for winning 50 matches in the game's wwe universe mode which i assume your wrestler managed to do thanks to the quick energy provided by snickers brand candies here is your winner the man called steve the second of these branded achievements comes courtesy of kfc and is called made the hard way presumably a reference to the complicated process by which the chain makes its fried chicken not sure then why it's awarded for performing three major reversals in a single match perhaps catcher's catch can wrestling reversals are somehow part of the colonel's secret recipe we may be looking at a power bomb here that's exactly what it looks like to me cole as if that wasn't enough wwe also added colonel sanders to the game as a playable character just in case you wanted to take control of a 130 year old fried chicken mogul and have him wrestle people he shouldn't be taking bumps like that at his age [Music] i knew it was my writing but the words were jumbled to dream like fragments reloading frantically the rounds was just thrown away from the town looked inviting but it was just the radio it had to come off she was startled by the phone we've spoken before about what a raw deal energizer got out of sponsoring alan wake a game in which allen's signature flashlight was powered by energizer brand batteries which apparently sucks so bad that they last for about 10 seconds before dying leaving allen defenseless against shadow monsters anyway bye energizer thanks for playing believe it or not though that wasn't even the clunkiest bit of product placement in alan wake that dubious honor belongs to cell phone company verizon who featured heavily in the dlc known as the signal in the signal alan realizes that he's still trapped in the dark place and has to follow a signal that will guide him to safety a signal it turns out that he will be receiving through a verizon branded vz navigator phone that seems a lot more reliable than those energizer batteries the gps system was working i hadn't expected that now that's impressive market leading coverage but how much does it cost less than you'd think if this wasn't bad enough they then managed to shoehorn in verizon's slogan can you hear me now in a way i'm sure everyone involved felt was natural and not at all immensely off-putting i'm trying to reach you can you hear me can you hear me now great work guys now alan mention the great gps reception again it made no sense for the gps system to work i doubted any satellite was in range here these were alien skies but it was guiding me towards something to be fair verizon was voted the number one cell phone provider choice for those trapped in a nightmare shadow realm so as brand partnerships go it's a match made in heaven got something i thought you could use take it if you want leave it if you don't hideo kojima is no stranger to product placement in his games as anyone who's ever used a playboy magazine to distract soldiers in metal gear solid 4 can tell you what do we have here or chow down on a calorie mate block in metal gear solid three caloriemate provides a nutritionally balanced source of energy and it makes counting calories easy or use the mcdonald's happy meal to lure out the ghost in pt the gap in the door it's a separate reality okay that last one isn't real but what is absolutely real is the monster energy product placement that featured heavily in kojima's most recent game death stranding death stranding if you haven't played it is a game in which you play as norman reedus who is a post-apocalyptic delivery man this job involves a lot of running around the countryside and clambering up and down hills all of which drains your stamina thankfully you're able to restore your stamina by drinking from your canteen which is not filled with cool clear hydrating water but rather with monster the caffeine heavy energy drink beloved by twitch streamers and extreme sports persons as if that wasn't enough head back to sam's private room and you can indulge your monster cravings even more as there are five cans of unrefrigerated monster energy drink just sat out on a table enjoying more prominent framing and screen real estate than norman reedus himself and there are absolutely zero consequences for you just pounding all five in a row unless you count those mushrooms that appear when you pee it out nothing in the tank norman reedus more like not normal renal function the other drink you can enjoy in your private room is beer but that isn't sponsored and so this is what happens when you drink two small cans of it still at least that's all the product placement in death stranding now if you'll excuse him all that monster has necessitated a trip to the little norman reedus room [Music] come on hideo you place a great burden on those who would bear with you you're one to talk i ask not that you guide my wayward son merely that you remain at his side indeed your grace we'll see the prince to altissia if it's the last thing we see yeah what he said hate to break this up but of course got the motor running final fantasy 15 is a game in which you play a literal prince who grew up in a palace eating fine cuisine and now is cooked for every night by a private chef with amazing hair who makes food that looks like it could make alain ducasse break down and weep tears of gastronomic joy so it's a bold swing from japanese chipo instant noodle company nissin to shoehorn their cup noodle products into the game and yet swing and shoehorn they did with cup noodles being given their own entire final fantasy 15 quest line in which it seems that party tank gladiolus suddenly has some sort of personality altering brain episode and becomes obsessed with instant noodles there's nothing else like them they're easy to make whenever you've got a craving and they're delicious to boot i'll never forget my first time to the point where honestly it starts to get a little sinister going through all that trouble to make our own custom cup it's made me appreciate cup noodles even more do the cup noodles have your family gladiolus blink once for yes but gladiolus's relentless shilling looks moderate and restrained when compared to the most wild nissan sponsored item in the game the noodle helmet a large novelty cup of noodles that noctis can strap to his head and then just go around like that i guess in the crown's guard your retire identifies you so wear it with pride while it might look stupid this literally and figuratively tasteful bit of headwear increases noctis's hp recovery rate presumably by him slurping life-giving noodles out of the top whenever he isn't on camera it takes two nice mission complete that's using your noodle hat in possibly the most devious bit of product placement on this list the fashion stuff dlc for the sims 2 was not just a commercial for fashion brand h m but a commercial for h m that you actually had to pay for with real money priced at around 10 pounds the h m fashion stuff pack added 60 real world outfits from h m to your sims wardrobes [Music] now you might be thinking that no way are the clothes from h m distinctive enough for you to be able to distinguish them from the sims 2's regular generic clothes yeah but what if i told you that the pack contained not only a maroon top and a striped top but also a pinstripe jacket oh my god i'm so sorry i had no idea yeah i thought so the pack also included the things you'd need to build your own h m store in the sim something i'm sure players were extremely keen to do and the ability to hold catwalk shows where you could show off your maroon top stripe top and pinstripe jacket oh those same three things again huh [Music] needless to say this brand partnership wasn't quite the success ea and h m were maybe hoping it would be receiving backlash from fans and a critical roasting that culminated in a 5 out of 100 review in pc zone magazine in which the writer described the content as unmitigated bum maybe he didn't see the maroon top it's maroon well i don't know what else they possibly could have done yep when you think of the yakuza games you don't generally think of cutting-edge men's fashion considering that the main characters consider it perfectly acceptable to dress like this and live in a bin but that didn't stop japanese watch brand gaga milano from striking a deal with yakuza 5 to feature their watches in the game and whatever they paid they definitely got their money's worth because this is not what i would describe as tasteful and subtle product placements for start a gaga milano watch is prominently worn by playable character akiyama a style icon as you can see from his alternate outfits not only that but akiyama has an entire substory based around helping a businessman become more hip to impress a girl he likes to learn what it is that makes a man fashionable and hip akayama goes to a convenience store to read a fashion magazine where surprise it turns out that the answer is wearing a gaga milano watch this is proven by the giant double page magazine ad that fills the screen and akiyama's enthusiastic endorsement of his own watch that he apparently wasn't even aware of the brand of until five seconds ago you then in a quest i guess does count towards the total playtime of the game take the unhip businessman to a watch store where the two of you have an extremely believable and real conversation about the virtues of gaga milano watches and how they make you look sophisticated yet rogish and hip and then the purchase of said watch of course leads to the unconfident dateless man finally getting his date with the girl of his dreams and you getting a reward from him a durable cloth probably best we don't ask what he was using that for oh what a lot of extremely unsubtle product placement in games that was those were jane no not how handy i'm trying to do an outro to this video no okay before jake from state farm batters down our jake from state farm defenses there he is now um i suggest you watch this video from outside xbox that andy made for you it's extremely good it's about the fates worse than death you gave your enemy such that they probably wished that they were dead instead or how about this video from outside extra which is an extremely mathematical deep dive from ellen about how much money games think your time is worth that's something you want to check out in the vents oh no he's scurrying around in there or i'm gonna go deal with jake you go watch some videos

Channel: outsidexbox

Views: 288,038

Keywords: outsidexbox, andy farrant, jane douglas, mike channell, 7 things, outside xbox, jake from state farm, state farm, nba 2k22, wwe 2k18, in-game ads, in-game advertising, product placement, advert, ads, funny, funny ads, monster energy, death stranding, alan wake energizer, alan wake verizon, death stranding monster energy, yakuza 5 gaga milano, final fantasy 15 cup noodles, ff15 cup noodles

Id: RW_sbJKpx_k

Length: 15min 44sec (944 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 14 2021