In an interview Sarah Bond, Vice President of Xbox, spoke about the monetization of games. A novelty was mentioned that could be highly divisive.
In 5, 10, 15 years and more, the video game landscape will surely have seen many changes, for better or for worse. Already today, consumption patterns are changing with services like Xbox Game Pass or PS Plus at Sony, inspired by the world of audiovisual media and platforms like Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video.
And on the part of the Redmond company we are looking for new ideas to earn money with the games and donate the greenbacks to the developers.
Are your gaming sessions interrupted by ads on Xbox?
With Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus, you pay for a monthly or annual subscription and have access to a variety of games. The catalog is also renewed regularly. To make their games available, Microsoft or Sony offer money to developers and publishers. Limited exploitation rights, as with SVOD services.
On the other hand, there are always the games that you can buy commercially, on the Internet and in the digital stores of consoles and PCs, but also free-to-play. Free titles where the economy is based on the sale of in-game objects, which are mainly cosmetics to have the swag.
That’s exactly what Xbox VP Sarah Bond reminded us of, while also pointing out that she’s looking for other ways to monetize video game productions. The introduction of pubs in games is a track but it also gets a mention “timed slices”.
We talked about how we test other monetization models. Think of in-game ads, which are more prevalent on mobile. Are there any similar models that work well on consoles and PC? Are there other models where you could time game sections and such? By giving creators options and choices, they can experiment and do what they love to create more immersive and creative experiences without having to fit into a template.
Over Eurogamer.
A form of consumption that was adopted by PlayStation and the entire industry?
The subject of Sarah Bond is not entirely clear at the moment. Would it be a question of monitoring playtime and then inserting one or more commercials after an hour, for example? A feature available on Netflix to compensate for a “cheaper” subscription and it’s a total flop. However, the last time Microsoft mentioned advertising only in a classic environment with an industry-wide method.
It was actually about putting pubs in game environments, for example on a billboard. A traditional product placement that was missing in Battlefield 2042. In Death Stranding, the hero played by Norman Reedus also drops gallons of Monster, the energy drink, to revive himself.
Examples of in-game advertising abound, and Xbox sees this as a good opportunity for additional revenue, particularly for free-to-play productions. PlayStation has the same vision and could take it further with its own program, which is currently being tested with experts on site. But using the example of the mobile phone chosen by Sarah Bond, perhaps we would rather opt for an invasive model where the use of the application, in this case a game, would be temporarily stopped by advertising. Have…
