so i just heard that the new chief strategy officer at xbox is really into the idea of in-game ads, and i'm kinda curious about what that means for us gamers. apparently, this guy matthew ball has been saying for a while now that ads in games are gonna become way more common, and now that he's at xbox, he's still all about it.



i get why he thinks this is a good idea, though - making games is getting super expensive, and the cost of hardware is going up too. that means we gamers have to pay more, and at some point, people are gonna start saying no to buying games or subscribing to services. so, ball thinks that ads could be a way to lower prices without cutting into the money that game companies make. it's like, if you can't afford a super expensive game, maybe you can play it with some ads instead.



one thing that's kinda interesting is that ball looks at the tv streaming space for examples of how this could work. he says that most people who sign up for streaming services are choosing the ad-supported option, and that hasn't stopped people from paying for ad-free experiences if they want to. so, maybe this could work for games too - like, if you can't afford a full-price game, you could play it with ads, and if you hate ads, you could pay a bit more to get rid of them.



i'm not totally sure how i feel about in-game ads, to be honest. on the one hand, i love playing games and i want the people who make them to be able to keep making more, so if ads are a way to make that happen, then okay. on the other hand, i hate it when ads pop up in the middle of something i'mRead more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com

What do you think about this?