EA CEO Responds To Rumours Of Xbox's Free-To-Play Ad Program

If you didn't see the news last month, it was reported that Xbox is looking into building a new program that would allow advertisers to put ads inside free-to-play games, and PlayStation is supposedly doing the same thing as well.

The news isn't official yet, but EA CEO Andrew Wilson was asked about Xbox and PlayStation's plans for a free-to-play advertising program, as well as his thoughts on advertising in free-to-play games in general, as part of the company's Q4 2022 earnings call yesterday, and suggested he's more than OK with it, as long as it's done right:

"We want to ensure that the player experience is the best possible player experience that we can provide. And that's why you've seen us kind of test various [ad] models over the course of time... What we've seen generally though in entertainment media and even in games, particularly in mobile games right now, you see that there is a place for advertising when done right."

"...You should expect that we would continue to kind of test different things, ensuring first and foremost that we uphold the best possible player experience. But where there is an audience that given the choice would like to engage with advertising, they have the ability to do so. We want to make that available to them."

EA isn't a big presence in the free-to-play market on consoles right now, aside from Apex Legends that could prove to be a major part of the new program. Of course, we've seen EA insert ads into paid games in the past as well - Burnout Paradise was a famous example, and UFC 4 actually came under a lot of criticism for it.

According to the original report about the Xbox advertising program though, Microsoft is "worried" that putting ads into Xbox games "could irritate people," and therefore wants to be careful they don't disrupt the gameplay experience.

What are your thoughts on Wilson's comments? Let us know down below.

[source fool.com]