PlayerWON is a new in-game advertising platform that will allow companies to include video ads in PC and console games, in a similar vein to ads used in mobile games and TV.
The bigger comparison is with mobile, as the ads targets free-to-play games and is designed to reward in-game items and currency to players who watch them.
As reported in Axios, playerWON, owned by Simulmedia, lets users decide whether they want to watch a 15 or 30-second video ad in exchange for unlocking exclusive gaming perks.
Such a method is already popular in free-to-play mobile games, where players are incentivised to watch ads instead of spending real money to gain items such as in-game currency or skins.
EA and Hi-Rez Studios are among the first studios to have signed up to the technology, with the latter’s free-to-play game Smite already used to pilot the tech.
The pilot campaign showed that players were “much more likely” to play a game and spend money within the game if they could acquire perks through watching in-game ads.
Simulmedia‘s Dave Madden said that 90% of players never buy in-game items, but its research showed that they are willing to watch up to 10 ads per day in order to unlock free perks, making them easier to reach than through conventional video marketing.
The company plans to launch in-game ads in roughly a dozen more games by the end of the year.
These in-game ads look set to fare better than Facebook’s attempts to implement ‘in-headset’ ads in Oculus VR games.
Last month, the developer of VR game Blaston decided to cut the test short after facing backlash from players.
