In an announcement that is sure to unsettle players but please investors, Electronic Arts has announced a new program to bring in-game ads to its games in ways that EA claims won’t “disrupt” the player experience.
EA Advertising, as it’s called, is a new platform that EA says advertisers can use to reach EA’s network of 120 million monthly players. That’s indeed a massive scale, and some people in the video game industry have been surprised that this kind of program hasn’t happened sooner given how much money there is to potentially be made. Recently, Xbox’s chief strategy officer Matthew Ball talked about advertising in gaming, while a former BioWare boss said product placement could help improve the viability and sustainability of gaming. Not everyone agrees, of course, as there has been significant player pushback to the idea of in-game ads, and one top executive, Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two, has said in-game ads for full-price games are not fair to the consumer.
For EA Advertising, it’s coming at a time when EA is trying to sell itself to an investor consortium led by Saudi Arabia for $55 billion. This is a leveraged buyout–the biggest LBO in history–and it comes with significant debt. Given that, people are expecting major cuts at EA and new revenue streams, like EA Advertising, to help service the debt.
EA, of course, has tried in-game advertising before (as have other companies). When pause-screen ads came to EA Sports UFC 4, players revolted, and EA cut the program swiftly. Years earlier, EA announced in-game ads for Battlefield 2142, Need for Speed Carbon, Madden 08, Skate, and others–EA has been on a mission to bring more in-game ads to games for decades.
EA Advertising is the company’s latest attempt at the market, but it’s also not exactly new, as plenty of EA games already feature in-game ads. EA Advertising is the new banner under which this program will operate and potentially expand.
EA said brands will be able to “integrate directly into gameplay through dynamic, real-time placements, from stadium signage to custom in-game content, designed to enhance, not disrupt, the player experience.”
EA went on: “In these interactive gameplay environments, brands become part of the game itself, reflecting how players engage with advertising in real-world contexts. Brands can activate across live environments, tailoring placements to meet campaign objectives, and update campaigns with ongoing optimization informed by aggregated engagement insights.”
EA is selling multiple types of ads as part of EA Advertising. This includes brands creating “custom integrations designed for specific games and audiences” through things like in-game challenges, “interactive moments,” and vanity items. For EA’s sports games, EA said it will sell native ad units for things like digital ad boards, scoreboards, and brand broadcast overlays, not unlike the kind of advertising people see when they watch a sports game on TV.
What’s more, EA said it is offering advertisers “advanced targeting” for their ads by way of a new proprietary ad server and SDK. Finally, EA said it’s launching an EA Sports Partner Program within EA Advertising for a “select group of official partners” to team up for live events like the Madden Bowl, the annual Madden ratings reveals, and “social play experiences.”
Some of the first partners for EA Advertising are Visa, Lowe’s Red Bull, Xfinity, Peacock, and Mountain Dew, which are already running ads in EA’s catalog of sports games.
Experts tend to agree that the AAA video game business is unhealthy and unsustainable, due in part to rising development costs and prices for new releases generally staying the same. Ball and others have said advertising could be a way to help companies make more money to avoid raising prices. However, there is no reason to believe companies like EA and others would not launching in-game ads while also raising prices to $80 or more, along with a further acceleration of things like DLC, battle passes, and microtransactions.
