By Paula Beaton A new patent from Microsoft could mean in-game ads are coming to Xbox and PC games in the near future.
The patent, published on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website on September 3rd, was shared by Respawn First over the weekend. You can read it for yourself at the USPTO office, but here’s the breakdown:
Microsoft could pause gameplay momentarily to show adverts under this new patent, titled “Contextually Aware Management of Interactive Software Application Access.” What this means is that ads could be shown after various “trigger events” in a game — such as completing a quest, clearing a boss fight, or entering a loading screen. In theory, this means ads shouldn’t interrupt major moments in gameplay.
The patent proposes a “credit system” to delegate chunks of ad-free content, after which time, another ad will play. The whole thing would work similarly to free-to-play mobile games, where ads are shown in-between levels or after completing challenges.
According to the Patent:
“The game engine sends out natural pause events such as after clearing a boss fight, end of a cutscene, completion of a quest, entering a loading screen, etc. From there, the ad tech freezes the game state to serve a video or static ad and reward the viewer with a fresh ‘ad-credit’ duration.”
On ad-credit duration:
“For example, the credit may have a credit duration defined at least partially by progression or events in the interactive software application, such as five rounds of gameplay, completing one level of a video game, completing three online multiplayer matches, defeating a particular non-playable character (NPC), or completing a project or task within the interactive software application.”
As if ads on streaming services aren’t already annoying enough, this suggests that in-game ads could be coming to games you have actually paid for and installed on your console. This could work on Xbox Game Pass, where you’re paying to access the service rather than for the game itself, but it will still be a divisive choice if Microsoft pushes ahead with it and potentially introduces ad-supported and ad-free tiers.
Of course, ads are nothing new to Xbox, with Microsoft already testing an ad-based tier of cloud gaming, and recent rumors — later quashed by Microsoft — that they were planning to introduce a cheaper, ad-supported tier of Xbox Game Pass.
Reactions across social media have understandably been mostly negative, and no wonder. When you spend £70 on a new game, why should you have to suffer gameplay interruption to watch an advert?
Over on Reddit, comments expressed included that this was “absolutely dystopian,” with some players saying they’d sell their consoles and switch to indie gaming if they were forced to watch in-game ads. Others commented that this would likely only apply to cloud gaming and Game Pass, but noted that this was how these things started before they were rolled out more widely.
It’s important to remember that at this stage, this is just a patent, with a rumor attached to it, and that many patents are never commercialized.
As to whether Microsoft could introduce ads on Xbox in the near future? We’ll have to wait and see, but we’ll update you with the latest news as soon as it lands.
What do you think about the possible introduction of in-game ads on Xbox? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.