- EA heads of advertising think studios should develop titles with in-game ads in consideration.
- Alexander Dao claims this is a huge opportunity that will benefit the wider PC and console community.
- EA’s ad division is already working on making new games with this ideology.
The gaming industry is not exactly healthy right now, with rising costs combined with the memory crisis, leading to layoffs at almost every major company. Many have been trying to figure out a workaround for this issue, and one solution echoed by several industry leaders is in-game ads.
Xbox CSO Matthew Ball openly suggested that in-game ads could help offset rising development costs while preventing layoffs by giving companies another source of income. Now, EA has also jumped on this bandwagon, even suggesting that developers should start planning for this eventuality.
Why it matters: If the industry wasn’t creatively bankrupt already, this development methodology will certainly finish off any crumb of innovation left in the gaming world.
In an interview with the Game Business, EA’s head of advertising, Alexander Dao, stated that developing titles with in-game ads in mind could be a huge opportunity for studios worldwide. When asked whether developers should take advertisements into account during production, Dao emphasised that this method could benefit not only EA but also the wider PC and console market.
That’s a huge opportunity (developing games with ads in mind), not just for EA but broadly.
The head of advertising claimed that video games will be able to incorporate ads more naturally, instead of retrofitting them later, if studios just plan for this predicament ahead of launch. In addition, Dao also said that in-game ads can work for any title, contradicting Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick’s opinion on how they shouldn’t feature in $80 games.
Just last month, EA announced its new division, which was built specifically to incorporate ads into gameplay without breaking immersion. As per Alexander Dao, one of the reasons the gaming giant launched this platform was to build new titles with advertisements in mind, and this ideology is already in practice.
With insiders already warning that in-game ads are in the works for consoles and PC, it only feels like a matter of time before fans have to give up on this frontier, too.
Do you think video games should have ads? Is this a good method to fight rising costs? Tell us in the comments below or head to the Tech4Gamers forum for discussion.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devoutly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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