I'm an older gamer (30's) and as such I am a little more aware of the implications of product placement in a medium that can be ,and is considered by many to be, art. Some games lend themselves more to product placement and advertising than others (racing, sports) because their real-life counterparts are also little more than one gigantic billboard and therefore the game is merely imitating this aspect of it's real-world counterpart. However, after recently finishing Alan Wake I found myself pondering the implications and annoyances of blatant product placement in a game (Energizer, Ford, Verizon.) I consider video games a valid art medium and as such I think the quality of the game should sell the product and by squeezing out a few extra $$$ by allowing blatant product placement it cheapens the game and detracts from it's artistic merits.

Games that are driven by a particular artistic style, either graphically or mechanically, are less likely to be subject to product placement (Okami, Zelda, any Ueda game, etc.) but I would hate to see this practice become common among game developers so that one day even artistic endeavors are whored out to advertisers by their producers. RockStar took a very clever approach and added parody product placement in it's games that critiques real-world products (GTA4). This is obviously not product placement but rather a creative choice to add depth to their games. Other games have added products that exist in the world of that particular game and this contributes to the feeling of immersion in a game.

Most younger gamers will not even take notice of product placement in games and that presents a sad future for a medium that I consider to be art. What about when it advertising begins to make it's way into game dialogue? Ug.