EA considers the use of advertising in games

In a conference call on May 7, 2024, the edited transcript of which is available online, EA discussed the possibility of integrating advertising into games. The company appears to be planning Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI). This is a technology that intelligently displays advertising content based on user habits, interests and historical data. Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA, made the following comments at the conference:

"Advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us. We have teams internally in the company right now looking at how we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences."

in 2021, Electronic Arts told PC Gamer that it had no plans for in-game advertising. In a conference call in May 2022 however, CEO Andrew Wilson rowed back and said that advertising had a place in video games if it was "done really well". It is not clear from the transcript exactly what the integration of advertising in EA games could look like.

EA has done advertising in games before

Historically, advertising in EA games is nothing new. As early as 1994, the company integrated billboards and signs for brands such as Panasonic and Adidas into "FIFA International Soccer". Nevertheless, the topic remains controversial. While advertising plays an important role in the financing of free-to-play titles and mobile games, it is often viewed critically in AAA games and console games.

Microsoft's Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is an example of how negatively players react to advertising when it is intrusive. In December 2023, Xbox players were shown a full-screen advertisement for the game, which led to many negative comments on Reddit.