{"id":731195,"date":"2026-06-12T04:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731195\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T04:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T04:15:17","slug":"xboxs-chief-strategist-considers-using-ads-to-offer-more-affordable-alternatives-for-experiences-but-says-the-question-is-not-can-we-cram-ads-in-everything-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731195\/","title":{"rendered":"Xbox’s chief strategist considers using ads to “offer more affordable alternatives” for experiences \u2014 but says “The question is not ‘Can we cram ads in everything?'” [UPDATED]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update 6\/11\/26 @ 8:25 p.m. PT \/ 11:25 p.m. PT: Matthew Ball has responded<\/a>, clarifying “that ads should be used to offer more affordable alternatives alongside today’s ad-free experiences, in the hopes more could play as a result. Similar to how Netflix and Disney+ have ad-tiers with all the same content, but at half the price or so.”<\/p>\n

He also noted that these ads do not refer to “in-game ads.” Windows Central regrets the misunderstanding of the source interview and this update serves to rectify the error.<\/p>\n

Original article: For a long time now, I’ve feared that sooner or later, we’re going to see game publishers start stuffing advertisements into their premium titles. It’s been a concern of mine ever since ads for Ubisoft games appeared in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey a few years ago due to a “technical error.”<\/a><\/p>\n

My concern has only grown with the rise of less expensive ad-supported tiers across streaming services for TV and movies, along with the prevalence of increasingly aggressive in-game ads for microtransaction purchases in paid titles (looking at you, full-priced Battlefield 6<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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Pretty much the last thing I want when I sit down to chill out and have fun with a game is to be marketed at like I constantly am for the rest of the day, so you can imagine how annoyed of a reaction I had to the news that Xbox’s chief strategy officer Matthew Ball is considering the implementation of in-game ads.<\/p>\n

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Speaking with The Game Business<\/a>, Ball says rising development costs coupled with increasing hardware prices (thanks, AI<\/a>, for the RAM crisis<\/a>) have created a serious problem for game companies, and seems to believe in-game ads \u2014 implemented with careful restraint \u2014 could help solve it.<\/p>\n

“There is a two-sided problem. The costs have gone up way too high on development, and at the same point, everyone feels terrible with prices going up on hardware or software or microtransactions. That is a challenge. It\u2019s not good if that is the only option,” he said. “I think the best evidence comes from the [TV] streaming space. In excess of 100% of net adds in the United States for years and years have been on the ad-supported tier.”<\/p>\n

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\"Assassin's
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Back in 2023, players discovered that an ad for Assassin’s Creed Mirage appeared in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey due to a “technical error.” Not suspicious at all. (Image credit: @Fab_XS_ on X (Twitter))<\/p>\n

“That has not excluded anyone from ad-free experiences. Those products are still there. They\u2019re still popular,” Ball continued. “The question is not ‘Can we cram ads in everything?’ The question is, ‘Are there opportunities that allow the people who can\u2019t afford, or wouldn\u2019t try, to have an onboard to our properties and franchises?'”<\/p>\n

Essentially, it sounds like if Xbox explores putting ads in games, it would do so by directing players to things like discounts on titles they don’t own or services they don’t use like Xbox Game Pass<\/a>, rather than to any products made by anyone willing to pay for an ad slot.<\/p>\n

It may also decide to implement an ad-supported tier of Xbox Game Pass<\/a> or Xbox Cloud Gaming<\/a>, providing cheaper access in exchange for requiring players to view advertisements. Notably, our sources actually confirmed a Cloud Gaming offer like this would come in 2026<\/a> towards the beginning of the year, though it’s unclear if that plan has changed or not since then.<\/p>\n

In the end, Ball’s goal with in-game ads would be to balance outreach with revenue that would help Xbox “keep our products affordable” and “fund outstanding work from our development teams.”<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t have anything to report on Microsoft\u2019s plans. I\u2019ve frankly not read into them despite my interest in the category,” he noted. “But it is coming from that perspective of how do we reach more people? How do we keep our products affordable? How do we make sure that we can continue to fund outstanding work from our development teams? That\u2019s the goal. It\u2019s not about placing an ad in front of someone so that we can sell, you know, a pizza.”<\/p>\n

Frankly, I am staunchly against ads in games regardless of the context, and would be greatly disappointed to see Xbox go through with this in any capacity. But if it does end up happening, I suppose I’m at least glad Microsoft and Xbox don’t want to get carried away with it. That said, this slope sure does seem slippery, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

How would you feel about getting ads in your fully priced video games? Let me know in the comments, and vote in our poll.<\/p>\n

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Join us on Reddit at r\/WindowsCentral <\/a>to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Update 6\/11\/26 @ 8:25 p.m. PT \/ 11:25 p.m. PT: Matthew Ball has responded, clarifying “that ads should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,61],"class_list":["post-731195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}