The Heretic Prophet Should Be A Bigger Deal

The Game Awards was just as exciting this year as the rest, celebrating the most outstanding titles from 2024 while showcasing some exciting new ones. Despite the hype generated by each of the trailers, one of the most controversial was Naughty Dog’s upcoming game, which aims to be the start of a fruitful franchise for the award-winning studio. The trailer for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet itself looks fairly promising with a unique blend of retro and sci-fi aesthetics with a striking color palette, It was overshadowed by the overwhelming amount of product placements seen throughout the trailer.

Intergalactic was also one of the two massive games rumored to appear at The Game Awards, with the other being the first official trailer for the upcoming Witcher 4. While viewers were certainly surprised by Naughty Dog’s sudden announcement, the reaction was much less positive than expected over a series of brand inclusions. Viewers were quick to criticize Naughty Dog’s upcoming Ingeralactic bounty hunting venture on social media, sparking debate over the advertisements being at the forefront of many scenes in the trailer.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Has A Lot Of Product Placement

Product Inclusions That Overshadowed An Exciting Announcement

While the initial outcry was a bit exaggerated, it’s true that Intergalactic doesn’t shy away from wearing its product placements on its sleeve. In multiple scenes throughout the announcement trailer, some well-known brands such as Porsche, Adidas, and Sony were quickly identifiable from their focus in their respective scenes. While it’s far too early to tell how much these product placements play a role in Intergalactic‘s sci-fi gameplay, it’s clear they’re going to be an unavoidable part of the experience.

With the ship of the bounty-hunting protagonist, Jordan A. Mun, having a large Porsche logo slapped onto the back, it’s unlikely that these inclusions were added just for the sake of The Game Awards announcement trailer. While Intergalactic is far from the first game to include paid sponsorships in its finished product of promotional material, its presentation is what caused a large outcry online. Despite the controversy surrounding Intergalactic‘s advertising methods, it could still have a positive effect on the industry as a whole.

Product Placement Could Help Sustain The Gaming Industry

Keeping Costs Down Without Affecting The Price For Players

With the demand for more expansive and detailed games growing each year, many developers are having a hard time keeping up with the ever-increasing standards to satisfy players. To put it into perspective, Naughty Dog’s own The Last Of Us 2 cost roughly $220 million to develop, which nearly doubled the estimated $100-150 million that the television show required, as noted by TheLastofUsNews on X.

To match these rising costs of development that can easily reach hundreds of millions of dollars, many studios have resorted to increasing the base price of games themselves, while offering even more advanced additions that can raise each release to staggering amounts of over double their asking price.

While one of the additional deluxe or premium additions isn’t necessary to enjoy a modern gaming experience, paying the increased base cost is an unavoidable decision for fans. One way developers could match their rising budgets is by introducing varied product placements, which would allow them to strive for greater heights without losing favor by hurting their player base. In a time when the cost of games seems to be at an all-time high, this might just be the perfect solution to sustain the growing financial requirements in the gaming industry.

Given that gaming is starting to reach the same financial and cultural heights as the film industry, where product placements and advertisements are already commonplace, an increase in product placement feels like a natural progression for large-budget releases.

Does Product Placement Distract From Game Narratives?

Thematic Choices Can Go A Long Way To Add Immersion

While product placements are a surefire way to ruin immersion for most games, taking the player out of the experience by telling them they’re enjoying a product rather than an experience. Nobody enjoys the feeling of watching an ad, especially when there’s no way to skip it, but there are still plenty of ways their inclusion can help strengthen rather than detract from a game with a similar setting to Intergalactic. Modern games could start embracing product placement rather than wearing it as a badge of shame, incorporating it into the gameplay in a more natural way that pairs with the setting rather than overpowering it.

It’s hard to imagine Intergalactic‘s level of product placement being in a classic Naughty Dog game like Jack and Daxter or Uncharted, it’s still too early to tell if it’s an out-of-place inclusion for the setting of Intergalactic. Some viewers like FrontlineGamer on X have already pointed out how Intergalactic‘s product placements are perfectly normal inclusion for its retro-futuristic setting, with others adding that the products shown don’t have real-life counterparts, and are purely decorative licenses.

With Intergalactic taking place in an alternate universe where space travel was created way back in the 1980s, it has clear inspiration from other retro-futuristic media like Cowboy Bebop or Akira as well, whose product placements are a completely natural inclusion. Given Intergalactic’s setting of an alternate version of our world, sci-fi versions of existing brands can help to ground the game in reality rather than completely removing player immersion. This concept holds especially true if its thematic inspirations tie into the retro style of Intergalactic‘s Sony CD selector, which contrasts with its shiny Porsche spaceship.

Intergalactic Could Be A Major Shift In How Games Are Made

A New Direction For The Triple-A Gaming Industry

Intergalactic also shares a somewhat similar take on sci-fi as one of the best comic-inspired games, Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy, where the protagonist Peter Quill’s Sony Walkman plays a core role in his character and personality. While it’s a bit hard to imagine how Intergalactic‘s protagonist Jordan’s glowing Adidas shoes have a similar effect, her use of a Sony sound system on a futuristic ship already seems to take some inspiration from the popular character.

Intergalactic is also far from the first game to make use of product placements in their games, with many of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid games being filled with brand references or entire product advertisements being praised rather than criticized. While this double standard seems to be a bit unfair at first, the main complaint is that Intergalactic‘s product placements are at the forefront of its announcement trailer, which made a poor first impression on players watching for the first time.

Product placement in gaming as a source of revenue could be riding on the success of Naughty Dog’s
Intergalactic.

The future of product placement in gaming as a source of revenue could be riding on the success of Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic, which could prove to be a great opportunity for Triple-A studios. Despite the benefits of increased product placement for both players and developers, there are always added risks involved when it comes to working with limited licenses. Death Stranding is one game with a fairly positive reception for its blatant product placement featuring Monster Energy as a key resource for survival, but its inclusion was quietly removed from the director’s cut re-release, likely due to expiring licenses.

Sources: Naughty Dog/YouTube, FrontlineGamer/X

In the interest of full disclosure and transparency, Screen Rant confirms it is on the judging panel at The Game Awards 2024. Our editorial process is separate from our contributions to judging, and as such, our panel inclusion does not compromise our journalistic integrity.