Sony Is Reportedly Looking At Ways Of Integrating Ads Into Free-To-Play Titles

A report from Business Insider(paywall) details that Sony is looking at ways of bringing in-game ads to free-to-play titles.The report goes on to explain that these ads would be intended to appear as a part of the game, “like digital billboards in sports stadiums”.This comes just days after another report from Business Insider (paywall) revealed that Microsoft is exploring a similar strategy.According to the Business Insider report via VGC, Sony is already testing a software program designed to let developers create their own in-game ads.It’s unknown though if Sony will follow Microsoft’s alleged path of forgoing a cut of ad revenue, but the report does indicate there’s a potential for Sony to charge its partners for consumer behaviour data.The report also says that Sony is also looking at “ads that give viewers rewards for watching ads and promotions for in-game items like avatar skins”, an ad format that is not mentioned in the report on Microsoft.In-game ads aren’t anything new to the industry, they’ve just seldom been appreciated by players, especially in the case of some previous sports titles, where un-skippable ads caused a fury of player backlash.Source – [Business Insider, VGC]



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