New EA Deal Could Bring Adverts Into Video Games
EA aren’t exactly in gamers’ good books. In fact, they haven’t been for a while.
When it comes to money-making schemes in the gaming industry, it’s EA that is leading the charge. In some ways, it’s a good thing, as it continues to finance its many endeavours - but the culture of selling unfinished games to dangle the carrot of DLC in front of the player, and rinse them for money with their loot boxes, has created an air of discomfort around their releases.
It’s a sad reality that game companies no longer release full games up front, and when the topic is raised, sadly, EA is the first name to pop up.
And now, it looks like it could get a little worse, offering the company more opportunities to make money from their games in a way that’s bound to upset fans.
EA’s New Deal Could Bring Adverts To Their Games
Click to enlargeEA has recently been in talks with the company Simulmedia to organise the insertion of advertisements into EA’s free-to-play titles. These aren’t just straight-up screen filling ads, but the type you’ve seen in mobile games, where you can sit through an ad to earn content unlocks and other in-game perks. The platform, owned by a parent company called playerWON, assures that it can execute a similar effect in console games, and suggests it can allow players to watch up to 10 ads a day to earn rewards.
The company suggest this is the best way to monetize players of free-to-play games, as up to 90% of their players don’t spend any money at all. As you can imagine, this is not going to go down well with fans of EA’s free-to-play titles.
Apex Legends especially is likely to be impacted by this move, and the idea of players being reduced to something monetisable is sure to prompt a pretty serious kicking off from fans.
If a deal goes ahead with the companies, it could mean a new era for gaming - but not quite in a good way. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, but this is not a good sign.
