There are ads on YouTube, ads on Twitch, and ads when you play mobile games, but you know where there aren’t any ads? Console games. And capitalism wants to change that.
How Axios Reports, a company called playerWON (kill me), described as “a first in-game advertising platform of its kind” (bring me back, then kill me again), has signed contracts with companies like EA and Hi-Rez (Beat) to try and bring TV-style commercials to their console games.
After testing this technology for over a year, they feel it is now ready to be implemented, with the idea that instead of just beaming video to them in the middle of the game, players can then see an ad when servers found that the commercial was viewed in full, “Release Rewards to Player”.
You can get a small reward. As a reward.
That technology would be out-licensed to developers so that it could be implemented in the game itself (as opposed to the ads we already see on consoles, in places like system menu screens) and they try to justify this by saying that young people they are “cord cutters”, they cannot be reached via traditional, cheaper marketing and are only available via branded content deals (like the sneakers and clothing NBA 2K, or cup noodles in it Final Fantasy).
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Which is expensive, so advertising companies would prefer something simpler and cheaper. Like this.
The tests took place inside Beat
Data from one of Simulmedia’s pilot campaigns with Smite, an F2P multiplayer battle arena game from Tencent’s Hi-Rez Studios, shows that players were much more likely (22%) to play a game and spend money in-game (Dec. %) if you viewed in-game ads that gave you access to additional gaming benefits.
As a result, playerWON plans to “publish in-game ads in about a dozen other games by the end of the year”.
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