Redmond may be working on product placement. Such a model has been seen in PC games before.

Microsoft is now working on getting brands to advertise with free-to-play games on Xbox. Business Insider reported it, and the Redmond-based company is reportedly already developing the technology to display the ads. It could fill its currently limited advertising inventory, allowing brands to sell ad placements to more developers with expanded game offerings.

According to Business Insider, Microsoft could roll out the idea as early as the third quarter of this year, between July and September. The plan is that ads could appear on billboards next to tracks in a racing game or an open-world adventure game. Of course, there are other ways of displaying ads. Still, they could go the other way by having a logo staring you directly in the face during gameplay in an utterly intrusive way (there have been examples of it in paid games), but it is not known whether Microsft will go that far.

A spokesperson for Xbox told the publication that they are always looking for new ways to improve the experience for players and developers, but no further announcements have been made. According to both sources at Business Insider, Microsoft doesn’t want a percentage of the revenue from advertising but instead is looking to build up the Xbox advertising network. The income will be split between the developer and the company responsible for placing the advertising. Microsoft is now concerned about how distracting advertising can be for gamers, so it is moving cautiously to create a private market so that only selected brands can advertise in a way that does not interfere with the gameplay experience.

Xbox already collects data on consumers through Bing and other apps, and Microsoft has no plans to exploit the data to target gamers, according to sources. So it seems more likely that they want to favour developers, but it all depends on reception. But to return to the PC thought mentioned at the beginning: in 2007, in the North American region, Ubisoft made Far Cry or Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, for example, free to download by placing advertisements.

So the idea is not new, but it is a different concept.

Source: WCCFTech