Electronic Arts (EA), the gaming giant behind franchises like Madden, Battlefield, and Need for Speed, is eyeing a new revenue stream – in-game advertising. During the company’s latest earnings briefing (PDF), CEO Andrew Wilson hinted that this could become a “meaningful driver of growth” for EA’s bottom line.

The idea of weaving advertisements into the virtual worlds of video games is not new to EA. Back in 2008, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign paid the company to place political ads within the racing game Burnout Paradise, a move aimed at rallying support among gamers. Prior to that, titles like Battlefield 2142 and Need for Speed Carbon featured in-game advertisements as early as 2006.

In 2007, EA inked a deal with an advertising firm, paving the way for commercials to infiltrate popular franchises like Madden NFL, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, NHL, NASCAR, and the skateboarding sim Skate. However, the execution and reception of these early in-game ad campaigns remain largely forgotten.

As Wilson stated during the earnings call, the company plans to take a “thoughtful” approach to any future in-game advertising initiatives. With billions of hours logged by gamers worldwide, not just playing but also creating, watching, and connecting, the potential for advertising revenue is undeniable.

“Our expectation is that advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us,” Wilson declared. “We’ll be very thoughtful as we move into that, but we have teams internally in the company right now looking at how do we do very thoughtful implementations inside of our game experiences.”

EA’s ambitions for in-game advertising extend beyond the realm of mobile gaming, where such practices are already commonplace. Wilson specifically mentioned the company’s “more traditional AAA games” as potential candidates for this new advertising frontier.

The prospect of in-game advertising raises questions about how it might be implemented without compromising the immersive experiences that gamers have come to expect. EA faces the delicate task of striking a balance between generating revenue and preserving the integrity of its virtual worlds.

EA is not alone in its pursuit of in-game advertising opportunities. In 2023, SCS Software, the developer behind the acclaimed American Truck Simulator, made headlines by selling ad space within the game to the trucking company Schneider National. This move blurred the lines between virtual and real-world branding, creating a unique form of product placement.

Looking back further, in 2012, Square Enix launched a browser-based gaming service that allowed users to play games for free, with the caveat of being periodically interrupted by advertisements.