"It has to make sense for the game" - EA sees a "huge opportunity" for in-game advertising "but it has to be done properly"

It sounds as though EA's being careful, for now, about which brands can advertise in its games.

Last month, EA announced a new advertising platform allowing brands to hawk their wares to potential customers from directly inside its games - as in, directly during gameplay. This has naturally led to concerns about what this will mean. Will the next Mass Effect game try to flog Nike space trainers, for instance? Probably not.

That would "push the limit too far", EA advertising bigwig Alexander Dao told The Game Business. "There's a big opportunity in that space but it has to be done properly. It has to make sense for the game."

Many of Dao's examples of how to 'do it properly' relate to sports games, which is where EA sees the clearest opportunity for advertising partnerships. "When you're used to going to a real-life match or game, you're used to seeing brands across the ad boards in the broadcast placements, so what we're doing is really replicating those experiences," he explained.

"You're playing the game and it feels like you're at a live match. It makes the experience so much more authentic than if random brands were showing up, or just the EA Sports logo was showing up."

As in real-life, there could be sponsored football strips or branded boots. "Sports, it's a bit easier to imagine what that looks like because what you're really trying to do is mirror the real-world experience," Dao said. But what about non-sports games?

EA's already attempted it, and apparently quite successfully. Dao used the example of an advertising deal in The Sims earlier this year which added Coach-branded bags and clothes to the game - Coach being a pricey clothes and handbag company - without charging for them, which players apparently liked. "We understood what the Sims community wanted," Dao said.

"If done appropriately," he added, "with the right brand, with the right title, understanding what the players ultimately want, it can drive that type of experience. But it is a bit nuanced, title by title, to make sure that you're getting it right."

There is a non-sports opportunity there, then. And there's "a huge opportunity" in general for advertisers in games, because of how many people play them and how long they play them for. And the biggest opportunity, Dao believes, comes when conceiving an idea for advertising early in development.

"As you think about new games that are coming out, as you think about free-to-play experiences that are happening on the console side ... like our Skate game - those are opportunities where if you actually design them with the right advertising and brand experience in there from the get-go, it just makes it easier. It makes it feel more native and it creates more flexibility in the types of brands that can come in and out. So I do see a big opportunity there," Dao said.

This isn't the first time EA has dabbled with advertising in its games, or the first time games have dabbled with advertising. The Grand Theft Auto-like APB had adverts in-game and over voice chat way back in 2010; Fortnite has made an entire crossover-collab business model out of it, and EA was talking about advertising being "a meaningful driver of growth" two years ago. Microsoft was considering an ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming tier at one time, and, Sony was reportedly considering putting ads in free-to-play games not too long ago.

I wouldn't be surprised if all major publishers have considered similar opportunities at one point or another, especially as blockbuster development costs continue to rise and rise. Might advertising help mitigate the budgets or the future?