To be online today is to be bombarded by ads at every turn.
Product placement and ads are inescapable, as you can see on this very page, and even your favorite game might double as a billboard for a company.
This list compiles the weirdest product placements in video games. If you are reading this and work in marketing, please tell your boss never to follow these examples.
Everything Ever
Epic Games makes plenty of money from V-Bucks, but theFortnitedeveloper certainly does not mind a little ad money on the side.
Whether it is upcoming films, other games, cars, and even gasoline (yes, really),Fortnitehas gradually morphed from “that freePUBGcopy” to a bizarre advertising bonanza.
There is no other way to call a game whereyou and your buddies can roll up on a Tesla Cybertruck while doing a drive-by shooting of Leon KennedyfromResident Evil.
7Mario Kart 8
Mercedes-Benz
Mario Kart 8
It is widely accepted that the Nintendo WiiU was a giant mistake by the company, despite the success ofMario Kart 8warranting a port that remains thelatest versionfor the Nintendo Switch.
What is not talked about enough is the awful Mercedes-Benz DLC that also made the jump to the handheld.
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Taking Shy Guy to victory is an often painful endeavor working with the Nintendo Switch’s tiny controller.
No matter how much time passes,it will never feel right to see Princess Peach zooming by on a Mercedes GLAthrowing banana peels at you.
Equally if not more confusing is the fact that, this being a racing game, there are no Formula 1 cars. Throwing the Silver Arrows around Rainbow Road is just about the only thing that could have redeemed this DLC.
6Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
It should come as no surprise that the moral code of a thief is more flexible than Play-Doh, but evenUnchartedfans could not have seen this one coming.
In 2011,Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deceptionwent for a bizarre collab with quasi-DIY sandwich giants Subway.
The SubwayTaste for Adventure collabgave you codes that addedNaughty Doggun skins,a white t-shirt with “SUBWAY” plastered across the chest, and, quoting, “Subway 5 Dollar Footlong Taunt”.
The items charitably gifted to you by your sandwich overlords were only available in multiplayer, but their existence alone makes it hard to excuse considering how in-your-face it is.
5Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Everything
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theorycame out in 2005, and remains one of thebest stealth gamesever made.
No game is perfect though. Besides the awful Nintendo DS and 3DS ports, the ads are the most bizarrely out-of-place thing in Chaos Theory.
Most notably, chewing gum brand Airwaves bought ads across multiple cutscenes in the game.
Instead of enjoying the scenery or letting the multiple assassinations you carried out sink in,your mind focuses on the stupid Airwaves blimp over the river.
Chaos Theoryalso has ads for AXE deodorant and Nokia phones, though these are executed more elegantly.
4Death Stranding
Monster Energy
Death Stranding
There are a lot ofweird thingsaboutDeath Stranding, to the point that this item here feels almost fitting.
Monster Energy scored a big contract to appear inDeath Stranding, but the lore implications are concerning.
Porter extraordinaire Sam Bridges has an endless supply of Monster cans in his roomdespite the total collapse of American society.
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Beyond that, his canteen contains Monster… but it converts anything into it automatically, be it sweat, timefall, or even urine. Is this some trade secret about Monster Energy we were not supposed to know?
In the Director’s Cut, the game swapped them for Bridges Energy, though the formula remains a suspicious secret.
3EA Sports FC 25
EA Sports FC 25
If you ever thought EA Sports neglected theCareer Modeon the FIFA/FC series, this is a stark reminder that they remember. You will wish they didn’t though.
In one of the autumn updates forFC 25, EA Sports shoehorned ads for Beats into the single-player career.
You get a Beats ad embedded into the game’s newsreel, and if that is not enough,the pre-season tournaments now have a “Beats Cup” to pick from.
The news ads are made even more ridiculous by EA’s uncanny AI comments, which drop strings of out of place emojis to celebrate new overpriced Bluetooth speakers.
2Alan Wake
Energizer and Verizon
There is no doubt about Remedy Entertainment’s talent for finely crafted narratives around a guy searching for answers about his wife.
Alan Wakeis beautifully dark, and it pushes you to the edge of insanity. For some, the ad placement is the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Charging your flashlight exposes you to endless Energizer batteries, but it is the Verizon ads that feel the most jarring.
One scene has you approaching a TV with a fantastic setup, only to make you sit through a whole Verizon commercial.
1Final Fantasy XV
Cup Noodles
Final Fantasy 15
Let it be known that there is no product placement as egregious as the one Square Enix imposed upon players withFinal Fantasy XV.
At a relatively late point in the game, a member of your party sends you on a wild goose chase to put together homemade Cup Noodles.
Listening to tough guy Gladiolus wax lyrical about the perfect blend of flavors and feeling that cheap instant noodles give him is weirdenough, but the game follows this up by setting up a Cup Noodles truck in the middle of a busy city.
But hey, at least you geta cool hatout of it, right?
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