The year 2022 is full of projects of all kinds for the Japanese company Sony , and one of them was recently revealed by an Insider survey: ads would soon be added to PlayStation games. But then, in what form and for what reason? Let's see this together!
Why put ads on PlayStation games?
This is the main question that the community has formulated after the publication of Insider's report on the subject. The answer is quite simple, Sony would like to encourage developers to continue producing free-to-play games , while finding new ways to monetize them and give them a reliable source of revenue .
Free-to-play video games have met with real success in recent years. Although they often feature in-game purchases for cosmetics and the like, they are still very accessible. As an example of free-to-play on PlayStation, you can find battle royales like Apex Legends or Fortnite, and other types of video game productions like Genshin Impact or Dauntless.
It would therefore not be so surprising if Sony wanted to encourage this type of production on PlayStation, thus promising their developers to be better paid.
What form would these ads take?
Don't worry, your games won't be interrupted by 20 seconds of ads like you can see on some streaming services. Advertisements on PlayStation would, according to Insider, take the form of signs or product placement integrated into the game. This type of advertisement would absolutely not disturb your gaming experience.
The Insider report adds, "The goal is for ads to appear as part of the game, similar to digital billboards in sports stadiums. Formats could include ads that offer viewers rewards for watching advertisements and promotions for in-game items, like skins and such" .
The most concrete existing example is that of the advertising panels, the "billboards" , present in the four corners of Los Santos in GTA V. We can therefore imagine that, if PlayStation sets up advertisements for its games, the result could be more or less similar to this.
Same project for Xbox
According to another Insider report , Xbox also has similar desires to add in-game ads. will be able to insert advertisements within video games without disturbing the gaming experience".
Same ambitions as Sony for the Microsoft brand therefore, encouraging developers to move towards free-to-play. It would seem that the two competing companies have the same motivations and are implementing the same development strategy.
It's important to note that these are Insider reports and that neither company, nor Sony nor Microsoft, has confirmed the presence of ads in their games in the near future. We will therefore have to wait for an official announcement to really know what to expect. In the meantime, the race for takeovers continues for the two giants of the video game industry. There will be no boring this year!
A player who was able to try out the classic community-created version of League of Legends before it was canceled by Riot Games wanted to share their experience. According to him, this is the time he's had the most fun playing the game in the past five years.
