EA, the big brains behind The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff, announce they’re “transforming how brands connect with audiences” – with in-game billboards

In the time-old tradition of marketing, EA have announced something ancient as though it’s just been thought up by the boffins in the advertising lab. Their big new moneymaking wheeze to squeeze every last penny out of their games: billboards.

In a press release that stretches into essay-length territory, EA sing the praises of their new ad platform, which is “transforming how brands connect with audiences”. Companies looking to hock their wares can now pay EA to plaster themselves over any and all in-game advertising slots.

I can’t be the only one who was looking at all the hours people were racking up in EA Sports FC, Madden NFL, and The Sims and thinking, “But if they’re spending all their time here, when will they meaningfully engage with the brands?”. I don’t think I’ll be alone in saying thank goodness someone is thinking of those poor brands. I was in the pub just the other day, and I saw Nike sidling up to people at the bar, opening his moth-eaten tick-emblazoned coat, and saying “C’mon, look at my flyer”. Bless EA for giving the chap a helping hand.

Though, I am perhaps being a little disingenuous, after all, it’s not only billboards. According to the press release, Madden NFL players play “the equivalent of 23,000 NFL seasons every day” and “this scale and frequency of engagement create meaningful opportunities for brands to connect with audiences through authentic, interactive experiences.” One such example of these authentic experiences is Mountain Dew’s Dew University. Which EA say comes with “a custom stadium, mascot, and reward ecosystem.” I’ve not searched this out, but I am assuming play stops every minute for a slo-mo cam of the players enjoying a Dew Guzzle® and you can urge your players to even greater heights of play by Pumping Them Up® with a salvo from the Dew Cannon®.

I probably shouldn’t be as down on this scheme as I am, after all, it’s just EA proudly announcing what it’s always done. Who else remembers The Sims 2’s H&M and IKEA DLC packs, in which EA presumably took money from the companies before then selling it onto players to create “authentic, interactive experiences”? Though, considering they couldn’t renew the IKEA license for The Sims 2 Legacy Collection, perhaps they did in fact pay IKEA for that slice of verisimilitude.

It just gets my hackles up that this is all presented as a means of making a game more authentic or that these ad blocks are of benefit to the games’ players. As opposed to a likely necessary new injection of cash to fund the coming pile of debt if the leveraged buyout of the company goes ahead. The sale puts $20 billion of debt onto EA’s books, and they’ve got to pay that down somehow.

We are seeing across the industry that growing piles of debt on companies’ books aren’t making them develop more exciting or creative games, but look for ways to remain in the middle ground and squeeze out more cash from their products. In a recent interview with the New York Times’ Hard Fork Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that Microsoft have “not been monetising” their games properly, complaining that “there’s more monetisation of Xbox games happening on YouTube than at Microsoft.” Claiming they have been “subsidising” entertainment. That thinking may lead to ‘creative’ advertising, but it’s not leading to more creative games.

We know that Microsoft are planning a “reset” and at the end of this month they are likely to lay off many staff, close studios, and cancel more games that aren’t in the profitable middle ground. Just yesterday, two heads of Xbox game studios announced their departure – maybe pushed, maybe jumping ship, either way a sign of more to come – and three of Microsoft’s gaming studios are on the chopping block. Including the never mainstream Double Fine.

If EA’s new advertising platform does bring in a glut of new money, is that going to be used to fund more creative games? Or, is it more likely to encourage a brand manager on Battlefield to suggest they create a level set in a stadium where, as EA put it in their press release, brands can “come to play alongside [players]”?