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If you think EA's experimentation with implementing dynamic ads in their games sounds like business speak for in-game product placement, Baldur's Gate 3 players have put your thoughts to pictures.
Twitter user SongbirdN7 went on a series of tongue-in-cheek quote retweets of the GameSpot announcement following the news. The first adds a screenshot of BG3's Lae'zel as she shares an important moment with the player character, a pivotal point near the end of her romance arc. "You showed me the betweens and beyonds. Between war and peace, beyond passion and obsession," the caption reads, faithfully recounting Lae'zel's romantic words as per Larian's script, before lapsing into a trite Raid: Shadow Legends plug.
"The dawn was my torment. Rustling leaves, agony. I couldn't wait to escape this place. Now, I revel in it. I revel in you. You showed me the betweens and beyonds. Between war and peace, beyond passion and obsession. And now I will show you Raid Shadow Legends, a mobile-" https://t.co/mxor2WbzN9 pic.twitter.com/JsdqxCzqhLMay 12, 2024
Songbird didn't stop there. Redeemed baddie Minthara's revamped atonement speech sees her thanking the player character for freeing her by way of a very special gift in the form of Raid: Shadow Legends, while Shadowheart's moment of catharsis got similar treatment. She doesn't deserve to be a loved daughter, but she does deserve to take solace in EA mobile game Rad: Shadow Legends – as too should you, dear player.
These memes come off the back of comments made on May 7 by Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson. You can check out page 12 of the earnings call transcript for more, but the gist is that EA is considering "thoughtful" ways of incorporating dynamic advertisements into their games, saying that "advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us". Wilson went on to stress that dynamic ads are not at the forefront of EA's plans at the moment, but thanks to Songbird, we can only shudder to imagine it.
You need only look at the aggressive plugging on the Sims 4 splash page when you boot up the game to see that this desire to push players to buy more EA content is already rife in the publisher's games, but "dynamic ad insertion" might look very different. The baked-in Star Wars beer ads broadcasted in Chile during the early 2000s spring to mind, and it seems this BG3 fan is on the same wavelength.
Check out some of the best RPGs to play next if you've not been successfully influenced by Minthara, from Dragon Age to Bloodborne
