How big studios plan to monetize every single second of your playtime ?
Electronic Arts plans to build in-game advertising into development from the ground up, aiming to set new industry standards as production costs continue rising.
Electronic Arts (EA) is planning to expand the use of in game advertising in its future games. The company believes that ads can become a normal part of the gaming experience and is already working on ways to make them easier for developers and advertisers to use.
In a recent interview with The Game Business, Alexander Dao, Vice President of Advertising and Sponsorship at EA, shared the company plans for its new advertising platform. He explained that EA wants to think about advertising much earlier in the game development process instead of adding it after a game is finished.
According to Dao, older games often need advertising features to be added later, which can be difficult. However, if developers plan for ads from the beginning, it gives them more freedom to work with different brands and place advertisements in ways that feel more natural inside the game world.EA introduced its new advertising platform last month. Right now, the company is mainly using it for sports games. The system is built around the Frostbite game engine, which powers many EA titles. It allows advertisers to place digital advertisements on stadium billboards and other locations inside a game. These advertisements can also be updated over time without changing the game itself.
Another feature of the platform allows companies to turn their existing advertising materials into three dimensional objects that can appear inside games. This gives brands more creative ways to promote their products while keeping them connected to the game environment.
Although sports games are the main focus at the moment, EA also wants to bring this technology to other games. Dao pointed to an earlier partnership between EA and the fashion brand Coach in The Sims 4. In that collaboration, players could access special in-game content connected to the brand, showing that advertising does not have to be limited to sports titles.
One of the biggest goals for EA is to help create industry wide standards for in game advertising. The company is working with the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Integral Ad Science to develop common rules for how advertisements appear inside games and how their performance is measured.
Dao said these standards would make things easier for advertisers. If different game publishers follow the same system, brands will receive reports that are more consistent and easier to understand. This could encourage more companies to invest in advertising across different games instead of working with only one publisher.
If these standards become widely accepted, other game companies may adopt similar advertising systems. That could lead to more in game advertisements across the gaming industry in the coming years.
The topic of advertising in games has become more popular recently as game development continues to become more expensive. Creating modern games requires larger teams, longer development times, and bigger budgets than ever before. Because of this, publishers are looking for new ways to earn money without raising game prices even further.Earlier this year, Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball suggested that advertisements could help lower the cost of games for players. He compared the idea to streaming services like Netflix and Disney Plus, where customers can choose a lower priced subscription that includes advertisements or pay more for an advertisement free experience. According to Ball, a similar system in gaming could make games more affordable for some players.
Former BioWare developer Mark Darrah also shared a similar opinion in a recent video. He explained that product placement is common in movies and television but is still used very little in video games. He believes it could become a larger part of game development in the future.
Of course, in-game advertising is not a completely new idea. Many free to play mobile games already include advertisements as a way to make money. Some console games have also tried it in the past. One well known example was Street Fighter 5, which added sponsored advertisements before receiving criticism from players. Capcom later reduced the feature after the negative response.
Even so, the gaming industry has changed significantly over the past few years. As development costs continue to rise, publishers are exploring different ways to increase revenue. In-game advertising is becoming one of the options being discussed more seriously than ever before.Whether players will accept these changes remains to be seen. Many gamers enjoy realistic advertisements in sports stadiums because they match real life events. However, players may react differently if advertisements become more common in story driven or single player games. The balance between creating new sources of income and protecting the player experience will likely be one of the biggest challenges for game publishers in the future.
In a recent interview with The Game Business, Alexander Dao, Vice President of Advertising and Sponsorship at EA, shared the company plans for its new advertising platform. He explained that EA wants to think about advertising much earlier in the game development process instead of adding it after a game is finished.
According to Dao, older games often need advertising features to be added later, which can be difficult. However, if developers plan for ads from the beginning, it gives them more freedom to work with different brands and place advertisements in ways that feel more natural inside the game world.EA introduced its new advertising platform last month. Right now, the company is mainly using it for sports games. The system is built around the Frostbite game engine, which powers many EA titles. It allows advertisers to place digital advertisements on stadium billboards and other locations inside a game. These advertisements can also be updated over time without changing the game itself.
Another feature of the platform allows companies to turn their existing advertising materials into three dimensional objects that can appear inside games. This gives brands more creative ways to promote their products while keeping them connected to the game environment.
Although sports games are the main focus at the moment, EA also wants to bring this technology to other games. Dao pointed to an earlier partnership between EA and the fashion brand Coach in The Sims 4. In that collaboration, players could access special in-game content connected to the brand, showing that advertising does not have to be limited to sports titles.
One of the biggest goals for EA is to help create industry wide standards for in game advertising. The company is working with the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Integral Ad Science to develop common rules for how advertisements appear inside games and how their performance is measured.
Dao said these standards would make things easier for advertisers. If different game publishers follow the same system, brands will receive reports that are more consistent and easier to understand. This could encourage more companies to invest in advertising across different games instead of working with only one publisher.
If these standards become widely accepted, other game companies may adopt similar advertising systems. That could lead to more in game advertisements across the gaming industry in the coming years.
The topic of advertising in games has become more popular recently as game development continues to become more expensive. Creating modern games requires larger teams, longer development times, and bigger budgets than ever before. Because of this, publishers are looking for new ways to earn money without raising game prices even further.Earlier this year, Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball suggested that advertisements could help lower the cost of games for players. He compared the idea to streaming services like Netflix and Disney Plus, where customers can choose a lower priced subscription that includes advertisements or pay more for an advertisement free experience. According to Ball, a similar system in gaming could make games more affordable for some players.
Former BioWare developer Mark Darrah also shared a similar opinion in a recent video. He explained that product placement is common in movies and television but is still used very little in video games. He believes it could become a larger part of game development in the future.
Of course, in-game advertising is not a completely new idea. Many free to play mobile games already include advertisements as a way to make money. Some console games have also tried it in the past. One well known example was Street Fighter 5, which added sponsored advertisements before receiving criticism from players. Capcom later reduced the feature after the negative response.
Even so, the gaming industry has changed significantly over the past few years. As development costs continue to rise, publishers are exploring different ways to increase revenue. In-game advertising is becoming one of the options being discussed more seriously than ever before.Whether players will accept these changes remains to be seen. Many gamers enjoy realistic advertisements in sports stadiums because they match real life events. However, players may react differently if advertisements become more common in story driven or single player games. The balance between creating new sources of income and protecting the player experience will likely be one of the biggest challenges for game publishers in the future.
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