HOW ADVERGAMES CONQUERED EUROPE

Throughout the Eighties and Nineties, Europe fell in love with advergames as they were used to sell all kinds of products, from cigarettes to chocolate, as well as political parties and banking services. What was going on?

- Damiano Gerli

At one point or another in our lives, we have all been prey to advertising or marketing, especially at an early age. As with all other media, videogames were not an exception to being used to sell ideas or products. Even in the early Eighties, there were already examples such as Pepsi Invaders on the Atari 2600. Still, while platformers starring corporate mascots quickly became the norm in the Eighties and Nineties, mainland Europe had more of a strange relationship with advergames. They were not only being used to sell every kind of product and service under the sun but were sometimes quite peculiar games to start with. Enter Germany, where advergames reigned supreme between the Nineties and the Noughties.

Professor Björn Blankenheim recalls how the first 'Werbespiele' were developed at the beginning of the Nineties, with advertising budgets on the rise. "After reunification, Germany was the largest market in the whole of Europe. At the same time, game development studios in Germany were going through tough times, there was almost no money left in game production. Being paid upfront for an advergame was an offer they couldn't refuse," he explains.

But why was the genre so popular? Why did games like the Knorr-licensed Abenteur Atlantis, the Toffifee-licensed Fantasy Forest and the Eismann-licensed Eddy & Co