Last week, EA and Dr. Pepper announced a co branding deal.  When you by Dr. Pepper products, you will get it's a special code that you can use to download free items from the Sims 3 store.  Although the article doesn't specify, one assumes that these will be Dr. Pepper branded products, so that your Sims can live in a Dr. Pepper world.

I don't begrudge anyone free promotional Sims downloads.  Hey, it's always nice to have new content, and a lot of people like to have them just to have them.  Personally, I refuse to co brand my game.  Every Sims since the original has eventually offered some sort of branded free downloadable in game objects.  I remember with Sims 1, you could download a free Pepsi machine.  This was neat, in the sense that it provided a quick hunger boost to your Sims for free.  Unlike many of the other co branded items, at least it had some functionality.

I downloaded and installed the Pepsi machine as soon as it was available.  But after a few days of game play, I get tired of staring at a Pepsi advertisement the entire time I was playing, and I deleted it.

I can absolutely understand why game design company would want to partner with another corporation to produce branded in game items.  EA and Maxis don't produce the Sims series as a nonprofit venture, from the goodness of their hearts.  The entire reason they're producing the Sims games is to make money, and the more money they make, the more resources they'll have to build expansion packs and develop future Sims games. 

The other kind of co branded item happens when EA strikes a deal with a retailer to offer a Stuff Pack.  We saw this in Sims 2 with the Ikea and H&M stuff packs.  In one sense, this kind of merchandising is more insidious, because the consumer has to actually by the stuff pack with 20 bucks of their hard earned cash.  On the other hand, I bought several of the stuff packs, and I didn't mind them because the actual in game items don't have brand names or advertising on them. 

With this stuff packs, the retailer essentially helps EA defray the costs of producing extra in game items.  When the player buys the stuff packs, that helps defray the costs further.  In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the co branded stuff packs essentially paid for their own development costs.  (I would be surprised to hear that the stuff packs actually made EA money, but that's possible too.)

It's definitely a tradeoff, and I can see advantages and disadvantages to both kinds of in game merchandising.  Personally, I don't like the feeling that I'm looking at a self inflicted advertising campaign the entire time playing my game.  I draw the line at anything beyond those hilarious billboards that ship with the neighborhoods, like the one which is apparently advertising waffles.

I'll define be keeping an eye on this Dr. Pepper co branding development though.  If the items being offered have any interesting functionality, I may well be tempted to buy a Dr. Pepper just so that I can download them.