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https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/mar/25/flight-simulator-for-tractors-how-a-video-game-is-enticing-farmers-on-to-xbox>
"Tractors are commonly sold to farmers at agricultural fairs and announced in
the trade press. But machinery makers are falling over themselves to get a
slice of a much more unlikely advertising vehicle: the
Farming Simulator
video game.
The developer, Giants Software, now receives hundreds of queries a year from
manufacturers of equipment – from tractors and combine harvesters to trailers,
balers and seed drills – about how they can feature in the game, where players
create their own virtual farm.
Farming Simulator is important enough that some firms even launch products at
the same time as the game is updated. Search for news about Göweil, and you’re
just as likely to find details of the nine products in the
Farming Simulator
update pack released last week as coverage of its hay balers in the real world.
Giants, based in Switzerland, told the
Observer that interest from
manufacturers provides it with enough of a revenue stream to cover the costs of
game development. “In the beginning, we had to ask manufacturers to be included
in the game,” said Wolfgang Ebert, Giants’ marketing manager. “Today, we have
to consider who we can integrate and what benefit there is to the game – we
have many, many brands waiting to be included.”
Players begin with a barn, some equipment and a little land. They need to grow
food, sell it, expand their farm – and buy better gear.
Part of the appeal of the
Farming Simulator series, like
Microsoft Flight
Simulator or the
Formula One racing games, comes from the realism of the
experience. Yet would-be pilots and drivers are unlikely to be able to afford a
jumbo jet or a racing car, while there are plenty of farmers who have bought
one of the 25m copies sold who can potentially field-test a new tractor in the
game, making it a much more valuable marketing tool.
Companies now share detailed engineering drawings of their product with Giants
so that it can be simulated – a highly sensitive matter, according to Martin
Seidel, the partner manager for Giants. “We definitely have to have good
relationships with everyone, because we’re on a high trust level,” he said."
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*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
