While many people around the world are getting caught up in the football fever thanks to the World Cup 2026, the entire tournament is of course also a huge business. EA wants to take advantage of this with its sports titles, such as EA FC.
What is this initiative? EA sells not only the popular EA FC in Germany for €79.99 every year but also other sports games like Madden (American Football), NHL (Ice Hockey), College Football, Skate, and The Sims.
In all these titles, EA wants to enable new partnerships with advertising partners in the future, who can bring their products and advertisements directly into the games. As stated on EA.com, advertisers could, for example, book “Custom Vanity Kits, Ultimate Team Packs, Brand Challenges, and Live Events at EA SPORTS”.
They show a video in which players in EA SPORTS wear a jersey with the inscription “Visa” and the colors of the large payment network (see title image). Also visible is the brand’s board advertising.
Here you can see a trailer for EA FC:
Not just in EA FC
What else is planned? There will also be advertising integrations in The Sims. A video on EA.com shows the integration of the Coach brand, which has provided handbags and jackets for the Sims characters. The iconic Vans are also a fixed part of the new Skate.
EA also offers the option to display a logo in the replay or highlights of a game. While this may resemble typical broadcast placements in football, it is still a advertising space in the game.
Of course, advertisers can also sponsor real events like the Madden Bowl in San Francisco and place their ads everywhere there. At the same time, what EA is announcing here is not very surprising in the industry.
Why is this not surprising? The more video games are used as a mass medium, the more attractive they become for advertisers. At the same time, the development becomes more expensive and the budget of gamers in the tense economic situation is limited.
Therefore, the industry is currently working on ideas for advertising in games across the board. What we see at EA is therefore hardly anything new. Recently, Sony patented a technology that can recognize via AI whether a player is in a loading screen or the lobby of a battle royale. Here the AI can then display advertisements in a kind of multi-view.
While Sony’s patent is not yet in use, it has been registered. At the same time, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella states in connection with the closure of a development studio that video games are not sufficiently monetized and that they must work “in an economically sustainable way” in the future.
This does not mean that Microsoft and Sony will directly catch up with EA and try to integrate brands and advertising partners into their games, but it cannot be ruled out in the long run.
We would be very interested in your opinion! Do you think advertising in games is a no-go or do you have no problem with it? Feel free to let us know in the comments what kind you are more open to, a short advertisement in the loading screen or jerseys and items from sponsors. The economic situation of video games is also causing the stopping of new titles: The secret survival game by Blizzard has been canceled – employees are said to be working on other projects
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