Electronic Arts tests EA Advertising: ads built into gameplay

EA is testing a new way to make money from its games. It’s called EA Advertising, and it would place ads directly inside gameplay. The name tells you what it is. The catch is where those ads would appear: built into the game itself, in a way that could feel pretty intrusive.

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Ads, but better integrated

EA says the ads would be “dynamic and real-time,” so it could swap them in and out on stadium boards, signs, and billboards. It could also bring in branded in-game content, including specific products from companies that want to promote themselves. According to EA, the idea is to “enhance, rather than interrupt, the player experience.”

How would that actually work? EA says that by matching ads to particular games and audiences, it can turn them into in-game challenges or objectives, with promotional rewards attached. The idea, then, is to make the advertising feel like part of the game, not something clumsily dropped in that breaks the flow of play.

With brands like Visa, Lowe’s, Red Bull, Mountain Dew, Xfinity, and Peacock already signed on, this looks like something that could arrive sooner rather than later. Still, this wouldn’t be EA’s first attempt at doing this.

EA previously put ads from Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign into 18 of its games, and it also ran ads for The Boys in UFC 4. The problem is that both examples were widely seen as extremely intrusive, and players pushed back hard.

So the real question now is whether EA Advertising will turn out any differently, or whether it’s headed for another public backlash.

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