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The latest Fortnite level is one big Samsung ad

  • Samsung has launched a new “world” in Fortnite that serves as an advertisement for its Odyssey monitor lineup.
  • The world comprises five levels that are basically gamified forms of marketing.
  • Marketing in entertainment media can be harmful to young children, and this could be true for Fortnite’s huge player base of teens and pre-teens.

A tech giant dips a few more toes in the waters of in-game marketing today as Samsung announced the creation of a permanent world, or level, within the mega-popular battle royale shooter Fortnite.

The new world is called “Odyssey Universe” and it serves as a playable advertisement for Samsung’s lineup of Odyssey monitors.

Fortnite recently launched its latest season, which sees players removed from the usual battle royale-style island backdrop and placed within the futuristic, cyberpunk MEGA City.

The new map is all about movement, with players able to use grind rails throughout for more fluid locomotion as they shoot and beat their way to the famed Victory Royale.

Samsung has seemingly taken advantage of this cyberpunk backdrop with its new world, accessible through a lobby that is connected with five different stages – Level Ark, G9, G8, G7 and G6 – each named after an Odyssey screen.

Check out some images of the new Samsung world in Fortnite below:

According to a press statement, each of the levels contains some form of gamified way that Samsung is looking to plug in its screen specifications. Ark offers a maze where you need to escape by answering what the correct refresh rate of a certain Samsung display is.

Level G9, inspired by the Odyssey Neo G9, is represented by an in-game golf course, while G8 is a racing track where players will have to count the number of monitors they see as they curb and skid through the course.

The G7 level is a shooting range made to highlight that screen’s refresh rate, while G6 sees players collecting tokens within a large shopping mall-like stage. These tokens will see players come across Samsung monitors as if they were in real-life shopping malls.

Samsung also teamed up with streamers SypherPK and NickEH30 to host playthroughs of the levels. The streamers talked up how much “fun” they had.

All in all, an ingenuous marketing tactic from the South Korean electronics giant. Fortnite, which received a massive graphical overhaul a few months ago, is the world’s most popular battle royale shooter.

According to live tracker PlayerCounter, there are over 3 million online currently playing Epic’s shooter as of the time of writing. The game has around 400 million registered users and while exact age demographics are unknown as players can lie during sign-up, all one has to do is ask the young person in their life if they have played Fortnite. The answer is usually the same.

Fortnite is free to play, available on basically every platform and has negligible age restrictions.

It is the ultimate way to reach a young, tech-mind and captive audience with information about new gaming monitors. Earlier this month, Samsung built a SmartStore-like level featuring the Galaxy S23 within Fortnite as a foray into “metaverse advertising.”

Other huge companies are also taking their marketing into virtual worlds with huge player bases.

In Roblox, probably the most popular game ever made in terms of the sheer number of players, most of which are believed to be children, brands like Spotify, Chipotle, Gucci and even FIFA all created in-game levels and designed gameplay around marketing their products.

Concerns have arisen recently as companies like EA are alleged to be exploiting younger players to turn a profit via loot boxes. Younger children are often unable to distinguish between what is an ad and what is entertainment.

In 2004, the American Psychological Association met with members of US Congress in the hopes of introducing new regulations for advertising targeting children.

It cites the potentially harmful effects of advertising on children younger than 8 year old who lack the cognitive ability to recognise the persuasive intent of ads.

One example, research has shown, is that child-directed ads for healthy foods can lose their effectiveness when children view ads for snack foods in the same sitting.

Another concern is that without parental guidance, children can begin to belive that adverts are real and accurate interpretations of the world, and not skewed to influence our perceptions.

The Association’s Dale Kunkel, PhD. said at the time that “[Young children] don’t see the exaggeration or the bias that underlies the claims [in adverts]. To young children, advertising is just as credible as Dan Rather reading the evening news is to an adult.”

While Samsung’s Fortnite world is somewhat benign compared to the more predatory methods companies have used to squeeze money out of younger players in the past it does point to a larger, and growing problem with in-game advertising.

Advertising within games will only get more popular, especially in the titles with the most players. Parents, and the players themselves, no matter how young they are, should try to be aware of the harm that could emerge from this practice. Gaming is awesome, but ads are not real life.

[Image – Samsung]

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