Free-to-play games can be a great way to experience something new without having to splash the cash unless players want to spend money on skins, weapons, or extra characters. Developers of free-to-play games need players to buy in-game items to fund further development, but soon they could have a new source of revenue in the form of in-game advertising.
Gaming powerhouse Microsoft is in the process of potentially adding advertisements to its free-to-play games, according to a report from Business Insider. The report states that Microsoft is looking to offer advertising revenue to developers who make free-to-play games for its gaming platforms.
According to sources that are abreast of the details regarding the proposed plans, the advertisements that appear in-game wouldn’t disrupt gameplay and may appear on structures such as in-game billboards, advertising hoardings, and product placement. Several examples of this include the Energizer battery boards in the 2011 release of Alan Wake and the more obvious additions of the 2014 Mercedes-Benz GLA, 1957 SL 300 Roadster, and 1934 W25 Silver Arrow in Mario Kart 8 in 2014.
Sources also informed Business Insider that Microsoft doesn’t intend to take a cut of the advertising revenue, and will instead allow the game developers and advertising companies to share the profits between them. The proposed move would open up a whole new revenue stream to developers and would especially benefit the smaller studios who don't generate the levels of income that larger games like Fortnite or Apex Legends produce.
The move could be considered a shrewd one from Microsoft, who recently patented another new idea for local and remote split-screen multiplayer games, as they look to attract more developers of free-to-play and multiplayer games to their platforms. A continuous income from advertisers may entice more devs to create titles for Xbox as the financial costs would be lessened, and production would seem like less of a gamble.
Microsoft reportedly has some concerns that the in-game advertisements could irritate players by being too intrusive and is planning on building a “private marketplace” to allow only select brands into the proposed program. A concern for gamers is that Microsoft could use targeted ads, but according to Business Insider, Microsoft will not make use of the data it collects from its Bing search engine and its other services to create targeted advertisements on Xbox.
At the time of writing, it is unknown if Microsoft has pitched the plans to any advertisers yet, but sources claim that advertisements could start appearing on Microsoft platforms as early as the third quarter of this year.
Source: Business Insider