EA has issued a statement denying any involvement with in-game advertising platform PlayerWon and parent company Simulmedia.
An EA spokesperson said: “Following incorrect reports suggesting that we are looking to introduce ‘TV-style’ commercials into our games, we wanted to clarify that in-game advertising for console games is not something we’re currently looking at, or have signed any agreements to implement. Creating the best possible player experience remains our priority focus.”
The original reporting came from Simulmedia’s EVP, Gaming and OTT Dave Madden, who told Axios that the company had struck deals with major companies that included EA and Tencent’s Hi-Rez Studios. The new PlayerWon advertising platform will let developers and publishers integrate advertising that is 15 or 30 seconds in length, letting players opt in to watching the advert in exchange for some kind of in-game perk or content.
However, despite Dave Madden having a surname that would be the perfect fit to partner up with, EA has now refuted what the claim, and even that any agreements had been signed.
Video games and in-game advertising are always a very controversial mix, whether it’s how they are used within free to play titles or their occasional appearance within AAA games. EA was stung last year after they added adverts to UFC 4 in a post-release update, quickly removing them after a massive backlash, and it was a similar story when 2K Games once again added in-game advertising to NBA 2K21 last October before promising to fix it with a later update.
EA previously added in-game advertising to UFC 4.
Facebook has also started to try to incorporate adverts into their Oculus platform, but suffered a blow when they started to trial adverts within VR games. Blaston, one the games testing the adverts, was review bombed on Steam and the Oculus store, with some players asking for refunds for the game. Resolution Games quickly decided decided that VR adverts in their game “isn’t the best fit.”
Source: press release
