Microtransactions Are Better Than In-Game Ads, EA Says

Large games publisher EA has just chimed in on new ways to make profit, including microtransactions as well as in-game ads, both being methods that were used by the company in several of its free-to-play titles.

A few years ago, EA started relying heavily on in-game ads, not just in its sport titles, but also in serious ones like Burnout Paradise, which had billboards showing real life ads in the game.

That hasn't really taken off, at least according to EA's General Manager of free-to-play titles, Ben Cousins, who talked with Edge and said that ad revenue hadn't increased in the same way that income from microtransactions had in recent years.

“We actually aren’t getting much from ad revenue at all. The in-game advertising business hasn’t grown as fast as people expected it to.”

The EA executive then revealed that microtransactions, the selling of low-priced virtual goods, was a much better source of income.

“If you think about how fast the virtual goods business has grown in the last year or so, it’s been much quicker and become a much more reliable source of revenue.”

EA showcased a few weeks ago some massive profits from microtransactions, specifically the Ultimate Team mode in its FIFA simulator that generated over $45 million.

Cousins then talked about the upcoming Battlefield: Play4Free shooter, which will be launched next year on the PC.

According to the executive, it will follow the success of its previous free-to-play shooter, Battlefield Heroes, that relied both on microtransactions and in-game ads.

“We hedged our bets,” he said. “we thought we’d do in-game advertising and virtual goods sales, and one of those took off really fast and the other hasn’t really taken off at all.”

This doesn't mark the end of in-game ads, however, as EA will continue to feature them in its sport games, as well as other companies, like Konami with its Metal Gear Solid series.