EA CEO Andrew Wilson confirmed the company is considering putting ads in traditional AAA games — titles that players purchase up-front for around $70 apiece. In the Q&A part of EA’s latest earnings call, Eric Sheridan from Goldman Sachs asked Wilson about dynamic ad insertion in traditional AAA games. Wilson said, “…Advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us.” He then continued, “…we have teams internally in the company right now looking at how we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences.”
Unpopular opinion: I wouldn’t mind some ads in games like GTA, Need for Speed or Watchdogs. You’re driving and there’s a real ad in a billboard or in the radio station you’re listening.
Either that, or, you know, they could have witty, thoughtfully handcrafted ingame ads adding to the atmosphere, parodying the real world.
But this GTA already has, no?
They do, and it works because it is poking fun of the corporate hellscape we live in, which is whimsical. If they become real ads it will make the games less fun to play.
VR makes it even creepier with eye and head tracking. Not only will they present tailored ads, they will know which ones draw your gaze.