According to a report, advertisements may make their way to your favorite Xbox games. Read along to know more.
Ads are everywhere and there is no denying that they can be very irritating and difficult to deal with sometimes. Now imagine these ads popping up during your gaming sessions. Ugh!
Don’t worry as Microsoft is planning to ‘move very cautiously’ with the whole inviting and putting ads to the free-to-play games on its platform thing.
Microsoft has been working on creating an in-game ad network for quite some time now (since maybe 2018-2019), however, the process seems to have accelerated quite recently due to the launch of its next-gen console, the Series S and Series X and the increasing popularity of the free Xbox games content.
As per a report by Business Insider, the tech giant is working to create an ad space for selected brands. The report also noted that Microsoft is well aware of the backlash it could receive with the introduction of advertisements in its gaming space and thus is very carefully going forward with the plan. The company is also looking for an ad tech company that will help create and manage the ad space it envisions to build with brands on its platform.
Microsoft is also working simultaneously to safeguard its customers’ data that it collects through Xbox targeted ads from several places. They also do not intend to share this data with any possible advertisers any time soon.
Another thing notified by the report was that the gaming giant isn’t really interested in collecting the revenue generated through these possible advertisements for itself. Rather, it will give the generated revenue to the free Xbox games’ developers. This will be of great help to them as they wouldn’t have to rely on the in-game sale and purchases like skins, upgrades, machinery and so on. Apart from this, it will attract and encourage more developers to create more free Xbox games for the platform, thus creating a pool of diverse content on the platform.
The revenue may also go to the ad tech company that will help manage the ad space.
It is unknown in what way will the advertisements make their way to the platform or if Microsoft has already contacted or invited any advertisers or brands to advertise on the free Xbox games space.
If Microsoft does go ahead with introducing advertisements to the free Xbox games, then the brand and advertisers that will advertise on the platform will get an amazing opportunity of tapping into a completely new market. They will be able to target a completely different market of youngsters and such people who earlier were difficult to reach.
The advertisements can come up anytime during the third quarter this year which we think is a long way from now. As of now, there hasn’t been any official notice or notification from Microsoft regarding the arrival of advertisements on the platform, so it’s safe to say that the change will not be that sudden.
In conclusion:
As mentioned by Business Insider, the company is well aware of the possible hate it can receive from its loyal followers and other gamers. So, we think that they will introduce these advertisements in very subtle ways to not disrupt the gaming experience of any of its gamers. This can be through displaying ads on billboards, posters, or banners inside games or in cut-scenes or whatever, which we think wouldn’t be that bad now, would it?
Oh, by the way, there is some great news for the Xbox fans. While it hasn’t been confirmed yet, Microsoft can hold a showcase similar to an E3 kinda event probably sometime later.
The company is talking to its partners and publishers about adding big games to the show, so we can expect an announcement soon.
Anyways, that’s it for today. We hope you like our blog. We share such informative content regularly. Follow us to read more. See you next time. Until then, Happy Gaming!
