Ads in Free Xbox Games?

According to the information reported by Business Insider, based on reports from anonymous tipsters, Microsoft is said to be working on tools to help put ads in F2P games released on the corporation's consoles (implicitly also on PC). They would make it easier for developers to find interested marketing companies and work with them.

Ads in the Xbox ecosystem are nothing new - if only for the console's home screen or its interface in general, where all sorts of sponsored content is scrolled. This was introduced back on the Xbox 360 in one of the updates. In the games themselves this phenomenon has also occurred for a long time, for example in the form of elements appearing in the virtual environment. This also applies to titles sold at full price.

Hungry? No. But how about clicking on a burger... Source: Reddit u/brotherlymoses.

Product placement in video games

Microsoft representatives say that although they plan to expand their product placement business, they want to avoid intrusiveness that can annoy the audiences. They also maintain that they don't intend to make a profit from it, but rather build a strong network between free-to-play developers and advertisers.

This would be confirmed by the corporation's recent moves and its desire to acquire Activision Blizzard. Thus, an already built marketing network would be added to the Redmond company's portfolio. To this should also be added the fact that Microsoft acquired Xandr, the advertising and analytics division of AT&T, in December last year.

The project would be launched in the third quarter of this year. Microsoft is neither confirming nor denying the news at this point, maintaining that it has always been looking for ways to improve the experience for both gamers and developers. How do you feel about this? Do you tolerate ads in video games? Let us know in the comments.