EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO
EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO
“We’ll be very thoughtful about how to absolutely maximize our profits from this”
I mean, they’ve already been getting revenue from product placements in their sports games, many of which sell at or near AAA prices already.
To be fair, advertising in sports games is essentially expected. Advertising is all over the place in real world sports.
We all know that's not what EA is talking about here though. They 100% are trying to figure out how to get that sort of advertising into other shit where it doesn't fit well. You know they'd put real world ads into a single player Star Wars game right now if they could get away with it.
It’s like how product placement in movies started off super small. Now sometimes it just fucking smacks you in the face where you think is this movie legitimately just an ad?
I was always wondering how much money shooters set in modern times like BF\COD get from weapon manufacturers and army. It's both an ad for service and a shooting range with a touch of competition.
“Yousa enjoy Coca-Cola”
The cantina in Mos Eisley is now a Starbucks
Yes, I’m just surprised it’s taken them this long to go from ads in sports games to everywhere else
lol, that sentence was my first thought, too. Thoughtful about WHAT?
But how else can they guarantee infinite growth to their shareholders? Won't someone please think of the poor shareholders???
"Our research shows that we can fill up to 82% of the visual field before inducing seizures!"
EA CEO password is definitely B055man69.
"You're saying we can induce seizures in players? Quick, found a private ambulance company and make it a premium subscription, then fry everyone."
And then we launch a municipal consulting company! with all of those new ambulances on the road, we need to get these city's to put a $15 million dollar roundabout in every other intersection.
Ohhh so games will be cheaper because they'll be subsidized right?... right?..
EA Ads, they're in the game!
Feel free. I stopped playing EA games and AAA titles years ago. You all enshitificated it enough as it is that I left awhile ago. Adding ads will only harden my resolve to never pick up another title.
Mostly the same, although I did break my accidental EA boycott for Titanfall 2, It Takes Two and Tales of Kenzera.
Oh no! If only there were thousands of other games I could play instead
Oh, ok. I haven't bought an EA game in over a decade, and the one that I was gifted ended up being broken and nearly unplayable, so I'll just continue abstaining from them.
It honestly amazes me that people still give EA money. "Vote with your wallet" doesn't really work when 90% of "voters" don't care.
I bought BF 4 during covid for $10.
I got about 150 hours worth before most of the guns were unlocked. Pretty happy with that. There was no new patches, seasons or any other junk to deal with
Fuck EA. I'll never forgive them for Westwood.
Hell yeah, and maxis, them ruining command and conquer and sim city is unforgettable. I hope EA as a company burns to the ground.
Still waiting on another Kyrandia game
So we will have to instal ad blocks for video games?
We should be so lucky. Plenty of games (and movies) already have ad placements. The NHL recently added fucking banner ads with motion to the boards. I can't even watch that shit anymore.
Firefox doesn't have an extension for that yet.
Fuck. Advertising.
At least that feels sort of organic.
Theres a classy (well... less sleazy) way to do it. if EA want to make the billboards in the next Need for Speed game real advertisements it wouldnt feel as bad as unskippable 30 second video advertisements before each race.
The problem is they will do both.
We need Ai adblockers as fast as possible. They could even recognize ad banners on video feed and just cover them / fit screen with auto-generated fill based on pixels around
Depends how they do it—given a game is running locally, they don't need to connect elsewhere to get ads. They could easily bundle a load of ads with the game installation. In this case, it would need game mods, and they're not gonna be the kind of mods EA will ignore, they will actively combat it.
If they do function like a regular ad platform and fetch ads as they're needed, something like pihole will be able to block it.
Modders might be able to get rid of ads but since empress stopped cracking denuvo we're probably screwed.
To be fair, the ads might bring a sense of pride and accomplishment to the game.
I will continue to not play EA games. Business as usual.
I've got a game that I purchased on Steam during a sale that sat in my backlog for a while before I went to install it. But checked the reviews again first and saw complaints about the EA launcher and realized "oh no shit, it's a star wars game, of course that's EA" and installed a different game instead.
I was then just tempted by a massive sale on mass effect complete edition (actual name might be wrong, but one that includes most or all of the games in one package). Like it is pretty much at the automatic buy level, but again looked at reviews and saw complaints about the EA launcher and moved on instead.
Though now I'm wondering if there's a workaround or something to de-EA their games.
Companies used to do this, but stopped when every game reviewer called them out on it. It was always in kinda shitty games too. You can rest assured that EA is fully capable of making shitty games with ads in them.
Head Tap Meme Can't get called out by game reviewers if there's no functional games media.
There's very little decent media criticism of any kind left thanks to the ongoing media implosion, and games media is especially unprofitable.
I don't mind it if it makes sense. Driving around in GTA if there's a gap billboard I don't care. I don't want banner ads in the equipment menu though
GTA is filled with parody ads, which are actually fun content and not intended to make you buy something. The second they become real ads, you'll have brands complaining about being displayed next to gun violence or prostitutes, and all the fun goes away.
There's a reason there's no real car brands in GTA, because none of them want to be associated with running down pedestrian and drive-bys
How about when they inevitably share user data with advertisers (assuming that isn't the plan from the start)?
Loved the ones in Burnout Paradise. It had billboards for CompUSA. Which had liquidated almost all their stores shortly before the game released.
EA ads..... it's in the game!
pure gold... do they even use that slogan any more though?
Nice
Let's add EA to the list of companies I'm boycotting.
Oh? What a coincidence; it was already there.
Cocks a Cola! The official sponsor of this refreshing boycott is proud to announce a whole new cock flavor! Try cherry cock! And the all new mango cock!
This just in...cock!... Cock is not how you pronounce it? Couck? Oh okay, I'm sorry. But how about Pecksi? Pa pa pa pa pa! I'm loving it! So eat fresh papayas!
I don't get people bringing Coca Cola when talking about a company fucking its consumer in the ass (here is a cock analogy for you, you seem to like those). Boycotting Coca Cola because it's a company with terrible practices on their employees will probably not work because it doesn't affect the consumer experience. It's not like Coca Cola puts lead in its product or some shit that might affect the taste. Here the company reduces the quality of its product. For instance, boycotting Roku because they put ads in their HDMI cables that triggers when the user hits pause would probably work because it makes the experience shitty.
If you think boycotting doesn't work with gaming, you haven't paid much attention recently.
I'll be very thoughtful about avoiding EA games.
Only interesting game is Sims but even that is now finally getting competition
It's only a matter of time before this leaks into all AAA games, I hate capitalism.
Stop playing AAA games then. With or without ads they aren’t worth playing. This goes double for EA games.
If you’re still playing and paying for EA games then you deserve this.
You're not understanding what I'm saying. This is them testing the waters. All companies that are publicly traded will continue to do whatever they can to make a profit. Consumer be damned. I don't buy AAA games, but it doesn't change the fact that changes like this will propagate across the gaming industry and make it worse as a whole. The issue here is them trying to turn a profit for shareholders no matter what. So many of these companies are prioritizing making a profit why they happen to release games and not vice versa. That is a result of the last stage unregulated capitalism we have in America and those same tendencies that they've propagated to the global economy.
Don't be so naive to say "just don't buy it bro." I won't. It doesn't really affect me that much RIGHT NOW. But it might, the more they're legally allowed to and the more they get away with the more everyone will do it. It happened with DLC's, then releasing unfinished games, in game purchase in games you have to buy, etc. God forbid I don't want the entirety of AAA gaming to be a pile of shit. It's time for lawmakers to step in in this industry and most others and put limits on what type of things companies can do to make a profit. And this goddamn law that companies must do everything they can to turn a profit for their shareholders must be done away with.
Seems like people don’t think about it that way. Blaming “capitalism” for everything you don’t like is easy, but all it means is that these things exist because consumers want them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be paying for it.
I remember the days when games were 30 dollars, had a couch co-op mode, and a full single player campaign made by a team of just a few people.
Now we require in-game ads to sustain the development cost of the games? Somethings wrong with AAA if that's the case.
I don't think there's any claim that it's to sustain the dev costs. This is a "dear shareholders, prep your cocks for a tuggin' " pitch.
I'd expect more paid ads in the likes of Madden and not-FIFA.
Corporations ruin everything.
I'll be trying my hardest not to buy games from any major corporation. The indie devs have been nailing it lately anyway
Oh you can bet madden is gonna be littered with sports betting app ads
Think of the shareholders!
EA: "If you want no ads, please buy our AAAA games"
For a low low price of 250$ you can buy the deluxe ultimate season pass starter edition of the game which includes only banner ads instead of video
If you'd like to go (almost) completely ad-free, just add on EA Play Extra Fuck You Tier at $19.99 a month, minimum 24 month contract.
"ad-lite experience"!!!1!
late stage capitalism goes
"thoughtful" is the en vogue corporate euphemism for "greedy!"
Yeah but have you heard of needful yet?
More like "We'll do it but we feel REALLY bad doing it. We're suffering more than you do. You should forgive us and give us money. We're LITERALLY starving here..."
"being thoughtful" aka we'll try to insert these ads into our games with the least amount of backlash from consumers but we're definitely doing this dumb idea because we're EA.
Haven’t bought a EA or Ubisoft game in the last ten years or more. They can put all the ads they want on their games.
The game better be free. I'm not paying to see ads. No chance. I'll find a copy on the high seas that has that bullshit removed.
It may not be, because no amount of money is ever enough for a wealthy neoliberal. You could pay $200 in pure profit for a game and there will still be slimy executives saying "We could make that $201 if we showed them ads and $202 if we sold their data"
Of course they are, dystopian future novels are just manuals for business people.
EA is really pushing for their products to be pirated at this point like no one will put up with ads on their 60 bucks triple a game
If they were very thoughtful then they'd already realize that it's a stupid-ass idea.
They been doing that with Need for Speed for decades. Surprised they didn't spread it to the rest of the company earlier.
In the right context it doesn't necessarily hurt immersion. We've come to expect car racing to be filled with ads because car racing initially was an ad.
Their sports franchises have similar in-game ads matching the real world in how they are presented in the stadiums.
That is thoughtful and people didn't complain... They now want to shove in your ass and make you suck verification dick whle at it to ensure 100% engagement
All big games will have this from now on. Same as with microtransactions, very few have non anymore.
Next will be: "Watch X more ads, to speed up the grind"
To be fair, AAA games are bullshit anyways. I believe I have never seen a modern AAA game that is not utter shit with EVERYONE complaining about it.
This is such an exaggeration that its legitimately funny. Maybe you're periodically just on Lemmy or something, so you're just unaware, but tons of people still love AAA games. Case in point: Starfield. Even that pile of garbage had tons of Bethesda shills defending it. Some of them were even on Lemmy.
God of war Ragnarok is a AAA game, and I absolutely loved it.
There, not everyone complains about all modern AAA games. Just in case you actually thought EVERYONE dislikes them, you might be in an echo chamber.
Don't buy EA! Easy solution.
That's it, that's the final straw for me. I'm a socialist now.
Anyone remembers the In-Game Billboards in their older racing games like NFS and Burnout?
Fun fact, Euro Truck Simulator 2 has mods which adds billboards with regional ads. Players are voluntarily downloading mods which adds ads for more emersion. The default ads were not enough. It helps that the dev, SCS Software, is not a dickhead and has supported the game for more than a decade with good DLCs with virtually no problems.
neat. I think ads CAN be done right, but it sure is a fine line.
I'm getting burnout paradise flashbacks
If you sign up for super subscription++ we promise not to drain your blood while you play our games.
Please drink verification can.
AAA: Acquire An Advertisement
When I did a lengthy focus group for VR about 8 years ago, one of the questions they asked was how I would react to seeing ads in game and they probably got the most heated and emotional response out of me than any other question they asked me.
Good! Fuck 'em. Give no ground.
And even more I see no reason to pay for their products. If they're going to be getting ad revenue then I'm sure as shit not giving you any more upfront. Bunch o' double-dipping twatmuffins
"We'll be very thoughtful entering the potential earnings into the relevant Excel spreadsheets, and then go ahead with it".
Well in this case... I will continue to not buy anything EA produces
How thoughtful of you!
thoughtful
Thinking about all the money that could be in his bank account.
Since advertisers are already paying for EA games, we need not buy them.
Seriously though, only thing capitalism breeds is enshittification.
Fuck you EA.
I'm surprised that the billboards and stuff in games are not ads already. So many racing a FPS games that have scenery of billboards and stuff, it's all prime real estate for ads.
I mean, I do remember T-Mobile and BurgerKing "sponsorships" in older Need for Speed games.
"we'll be mindful about placing ads in our games because we're getting absolutely no revenue from new games we produce...which means they'll be everywhere."
Yes! Keep killing your company faster. Can't wait to see you go bankrupt.
The only way I could see this not being a complete shit-show is if they integrate them into the game in a way that makes sense, which has been done in places before. Banners along the roadside in a racing game (which exists in real life), a sci-fi hologram advertising "new-new-new coke, now with added element-320" as you walk by, etc
But since it's EA we're more likely to get an ad for hemmoroid cream during a loading screen, and the loading screen will be extended to ensure it plays the whole ad
Rainbow Six Vegas did it really well nearly 20 years ago. Lots of the ads and posters scattered around Vegas had real ads they'd change out. It really was more immersive.
EA Games do not count as AAA
Imagine the absolutely massive grave they would have themselves if we were still in the golden age of console gaming, I hope not any more than now
EA hasn't produced a game I care about in years.
Thanks Kojima
I would be okay with cerveza cristal ads like they had in chile while airing star wars haha
Sounds great! I’ll know exactly which products to never purchase
Honestly I'm shocked if they haven't put ads during matchmaking and around the stadium in their sports games. I remember that being a thing in the PS360 gen
Hopefully they patent whatever method they use so that nobody else is tempted to make the same stupid mistake.
Bro... Most of these "software" patents are a joke... Aka lets patent the best practice so other guy has to work around it but can't really stop that anyway
I just want my ea stock to rise so I can finally sell that garbage... What a waste of money that was
You could sell it anyways then buy something else that might have a better chance of rising. No guarantee that it will work out, but also no guarantee that EA stock will ever get to the point you're hoping it will. Thinking you need to hold it until you get your money back is literally the sunk cost fallacy.
And I just looked at their stock right now, if you bought it right at the all time peak, you're only down about 15% right now.
Oh yay, my Sim can watch real ads in-between in-game TV shows while listening to Katy Perry in Simlish, wearing their official Diesel clothes, and putting on their MAC makeup.
Can't wait to be blasted with a stuff pack full of vintage Pepsi-Cola™ merchandise next!
Like how the NES game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had Pizza Hut ads? Or like how the NES and Genesis have McDonald's games?
Alan Wake gave an achievement if you watched a verizon ad
Shell shock!
I will, in turn, be very thoutful about buying any of your games.
If in-game ads become the norm, I guess I could either not play games anymore, or I could take my ship out onto the ocean.
There are more "lol fuck you" choices than there are "pretty please let me be bombarded with bullshit" options here.
There are enough games that can be enjoyed bullshit free, that you'll never have to buy a new game again.
People are already paying for ads in games. Look at American/European truck simulator where you pay to have Goodyear or whatever other company on your rig.
If they do it tastefully.. like a coke can in a cafeteria which would make it more realistic than a generic brand - it could work.
They’ve been doing this in movies for decades.
If it’s shit like pop ups or little red notification dots, they can go fuck themselves with a rusty screwdriver.
Meh, I have bought just one EA game in the last 5-6 years (NFS Heat, which was like 95% off).
More people should speak with their wallets.