EA Is Looking At Putting Ads Into Its Games

Summary

• EA CEO Andrew Wilson revealed during a recent earnings call that the studio is looking into putting adverts into its games.
• Wilson said that EA already has teams working on it, but that they're being "thoughtful" about how it is implemented.
• Alongside that, though, Wilson also said that EA views them as "meaningful drivers of growth" due to how many billions of hours are being spent playing games.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson has revealed in a recent earnings call that the company is working on putting in-game advertisements into its releases, viewing them as a "meaningful driver of growth".

Although Microsoft and Xbox have just taken the gold prize for most controversial business decision by closing down Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin earlier this week, it seems that EA still wants to be in the running, as it's just revealed a business plan that is sure to be an unpopular one.

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In recent years, triple-A releases and live-service games have gotten a lot of understandable flack for how much they push you into buying more from a product you likely just spent $70 on. That's been controversial enough this generation, but it seems that EA wants to take it one step further, as it's looking into putting in-game advertisements into its releases.

EA Is Already Looking Into Adding Adverts To Its Games

As reported by The Verge, this was revealed by EA CEO Andrew Wilson during the company's Q4 earnings call. During that call, an analyst asked Wilson about "the market opportunity for more dynamic ad insertion" in its major triple-A releases. In response, Wilson said that EA already has teams that are looking into "thoughtful implementation" of adverts within games.

Wilson admitted that it's still "very early on that front", so it looks like something that EA is just looking into right now and not exploring at a full capacity. He also said that, while the team has to be careful about how it potentially introduces adverts into games, the billions of hours spent gaming implies that it could be "a meaningful growth driver" for the company.

"But more importantly, as we start to build community and harness the power of community beyond the bounds of our games, how do we think about advertising as a growth driver in those types of experiences?"

If you read through the transcript of the financial earnings report, it's clear that Wilson is being very careful with what he says about advertising within games. This suggests that he knows it's going to be an unpopular move if it is implemented, but that hasn't stopped the studio from already working on and considering how best it can be done.

To be completely fair, it's not like video games are strangers to advertisements. Even beloved titles like Death Stranding and Alan Wake haven't shied away from a bit of product placement within their worlds, so it's not all that surprising to see it taken further. We'll have to see how EA eventually approaches it and if it'll be as "thoughtful" as Wilson has suggested.

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