In his office at EA, Andrew Wilson is dreaming. Specifically, the CEO dreams of a way to serve ads to EA players and could stick ads to "AAA" video games for up to660/770.

This is according to a recent earnings call between Wilson and EA investors (via Tom's Hardware), where the EA boss asked "If there are plans for more dynamic ad insertion in more traditional AAA games."Wilson's answer""We currently have a team in-house and are looking at how to make a very thoughtful implementation in the gaming experience.""Gulp.

To be clear, while EA's efforts in in-game advertising still sound like they are in the drawing board stage, Wilson says it's also the company has devoted considerable brains

""Billions of hours of time spent both playing, creating, viewing and connecting, and a lot of that engagement is at the border of traditional gaming experiences."" Given that, we expect advertising to have the opportunity to be a meaningful growth driver for us," Wilson told investors.

In less floral terms, it would be: If loads of people played our game and we showed them an ad, we would certainly make a bank. And to be fair, things like this have been present in the game for a while. There were Duracell batteries strewn around Alan Wake, an actual ad for Burnout: Paradise billboards, an ad for Street Fighter5, and the ads that stood out the most strongly in my memory as immersive Simsico on the load screen of deus Ex: Human Revolution. In addition, of course, the EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA) series has been running ads for many years that are expected in real football games.

For many, it's all perfectly fine, unless it's flashy and conspicuous.Wilson tells investors that he is "very thoughtful" because EA considers the possibility of inserting ads into the game. Then again, the company has a track record of some less subtle advertising in games that have already been released. In 2020, as Tom's hardware notes, EA came under fire for a full-screen ad for Ufc4 boys, but was later removed. Perhaps it learned its lesson?

I suspect this is something EA will try and try to find a way not to bother (too many) players. Personally "I do not like advertising regardless of how modest, and especially in the game I have already forked over the full price for. Call me old-fashioned, but I think video game tv should not have real ads on them, they only address