Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball believes one way to help revitalize gaming is through something most people do not care for: in-game ads.
Speaking to The Game Business, Ball said there exists a "two-sided problem" in the modern gaming space. Development costs for many games are now "way too high," and consumers do not want to pay more. Something has got to give, and one possible solution, as Ball sees it, is through advertising.
He cited streaming TV as an example here, saying most of the growth for a variety of streaming platforms comes from ad-supported tiers. At the same time, people can still pay money to kill the ads on higher-priced tiers.
While ad-based games are already prevalent and popular on mobile, they are less so on console. Finding a solution on console for ad-supported games could be one of the ways the gaming business can return to growth, Ball said.
"The question is not can we cram ads in everything. The question is, are there opportunities that allow the people who can’t afford, or wouldn’t try, to have an onboard to our properties and franchises?" he said.
Ball went on to say he has nothing to share about Microsoft's plans specifically, but he said companies would be smart to look at advertising to help grow and manage costs.
“How do we keep our products affordable? How do we make sure that we can continue to fund outstanding work from our development teams? That’s the goal. It’s not about placing an ad in front of someone so that we can sell, you know, a pizza," he said.
Ball previously advocated for more in-game ads, saying people should embrace them, or else things may just get worse for developers and consumers alike.
"We don’t want layoffs, we don’t want fewer games, we don’t just want the same games … We don’t want price increases. The money needs to come in one way or another," he said.
Developers have tried in-game ads before, like with EA Sports UFC 4's pause-screen ads. There was a swift and angry backlash, and EA removed these ads. Before that, Square Enix launched a gaming platform, Core Online, that allowed people to play games for free in exchange for watching ads, but people didn't embrace it and Square Enix quickly shut it down.
Former BioWare veteran Mark Darrah recently said developers can make more money and help the industry become more sustainable by selling product placement.
“Product placement is a very small part of video games right now compared to movies and television. Maybe it could be a larger part of development. Maybe there are relationships there to be formed," he said.
Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick, meanwhile, has said in-game ads for full-priced games "would seem unfair."
Ball joined Xbox earlier this year as Chief Strategy Officer as part of Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's new leadership team. He recently said Xbox languished under previous leaders Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond and has said he is a "strategic optimist" when it comes to trying to fix Xbox.
Sharma recently announced plans to "reset" the Xbox business, and this is expected to include more layoffs and possible studio closures in July.
