Recently, Electronic Arts’s CEO Andrew Willson revealed that the company is considering thoughtful ways to incorporate ads into its games in his recent earnings call. The video game company is looking for additional ways of increasing revenue by tapping into its fanbase by administering clever ads.
According to Andrew Wilson, the plans are still quite unclear. The possibility of including in-game ads is still very much in the drawing board phase; however, the company is indeed committing significant resources towards achieving it the right way.
Electronic Arts wants to implement dynamic ad insertions in its mainstream AAA games, which has been received with skepticism. Players typically do not like ads, especially in-game ads.
The EA CEO insisted on the need to implement the ads in a clever way, which can easily be interpreted as administering ads without interfering with players’ gaming experiences.
Electronic Arts Player’s Reaction to Possible In-game Ads
No one likes ads; otherwise, there wouldn’t be options to pay premiums to avoid experiencing ads. Nonetheless, EA is looking to tap into its player base to try to make bank.
“As we think about the many, many billions of hours spent, both playing, creating, watching and connecting and where much of that engagement happens to be on the bounds of a traditional game experience, our expectation is that advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us,”
- Andrew Wilson to EA investors.
Both EA players and investors are concerned about this announcement. Some investors have voiced concerns about the announcement, stating that Electronic Arts has been administering ads into its games, and the prospect of making significantly more revenue from new ads within its games is far-fetched.
Admittedly, the concerns are somewhat true. As a long-time EA Sports FIFA (now an FC ) player, I can remember that the games have had typical ads displayed in stadiums. It’d be impractical to have more ads within the game unless they find clever ways to incorporate them at halftime or the end of the game.
Certainly, players would not want to be interrupted by nagging ads during the intense face-offs in the UEFA Champions League Finals.
