Microsoft Is Putting Ads In Free-To-Play Xbox Games
Free-to-play is seemingly the way to go in the gaming industry now.
Fortnite has led the modern charge on both the battle royale genre and setting the standard that a BR title needs to be free to garner an audience, which is pretty grisly for the industry, but just as good for the consumer. The real trouble of this is a reliance on microtransactions, hoping that players will be so invested in the game to buy their own cosmetics.
But Xbox seem to think they've come up with an alternative. And it's not going to be popular.
Xbox Wants To Add Ads To Free-To-Play Games
Click to enlargeIn a move that's going to p*ss a lot of players off, Microsoft has hinted that they intend to introduce ads to free-to-play games.
As revealed by a report from a business insider, Microsoft is working on an "ad network" that will start the process of bringing ads to Xbox games that are free-to-play. Supposedly this network has been in the works for years now, and sources have suggested that the ads themselves would be akin to "digitally rendered billboards in a car racing game." Suspicious.
If these ads are really in the works, it's going to upset a lot of consumers - and Microsoft don't really seem to mind.
What Games Could Be Affected By Xbox's Ad Plans?
Click to enlargeThere are a lot of games that could be touched by Xbox's ad plans, with Fortnite, Roblox, and Rocket League especially in danger of being tagged.
Others like PUBG, Apex Legends, and even Halo: Infinite's multiplayer mode could yet be impacted by the new changes, but we'll just have to wait to see which games are set to get them.
It's kind of bleak, and a little unfair of Xbox to loom over the free-to-play games on their consoles that also appear on PlayStation and PC, but it seems like something we're going to have to deal with. This could well endanger Xbox's branding - and it might change a lot of players' minds about picking up an Xbox Series console.