It seems like something Electronic Arts tried to do 17-18 years ago, but it was a different time and a different business model.

Back then, you could have ads in your game, but you could download them for free. But in 2024, the question of how to hide ads in games will still be an issue. Not in free-to-play titles, but in AAA games that they charge $60 or $70 for. This is what Andrew Wilson, CEO of Electronic Arts, told investors during the company’s quarterly report. “More dynamic ad insertion in more traditional AAA games.” And there are already teams within the company working on this…

“When we think about the many, many billions of hours that are spent both playing, creating, watching and connecting, and where a lot of that engagement happens at the boundaries of a traditional gaming experience, we expect that advertising has an opportunity to be a significant driver of growth for us,” Wilson said. So a lot of people are playing their games, and he believes they (not the developers) can make even more money by putting ads on, say, loading screens. They already do this in EA Sports FC 24, for example, or Madden NFL 24: they advertise the Ultimate Team mode, a gambling minigame.

There have been product placements in games. For example, Mountain Dew in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, Duracell in Alan Wake, the many billboards in Burnout: Paradise from Electronic Arts, or even the many loading screen ads in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. If we had to cite another EA example, in Need For Speed: Underground 2, the cell phone provider icon was also a giant ad.

But in 2020, Electronic Arts already got a slap in the face with this. UFC 4 featured a full screen ad for The Boys, which was later removed. You would think they would have learned from this… but no.

Source: PCGamer, EA