Sony reportedly has plans to put advertisements inside of PlayStation free-to-play games in a fashion similar to a project reportedly in the works at Microsoft.
As with most modern gaming platforms, the PS4 and PS5 have a fair number of free-to-play experiences available. This was expanded during the worst of the pandemic with bonus content for free-to-play games. Sony has recently revealed its overhaul of PlayStation Plus which will offer up even more ways to play games for free. Now, a new report has revealed that advertisements may be in some of these free-to-play games, too.
What We Know About the Reported Plans for PlayStation Free-to-Play Game Ads
Business Insider reports (via Reddit) that Sony has plans to put advertisements inside of PlayStation free-to-play games. The plans are so similar to the reported plans for Xbox free-to-play ads, in fact, that I could virtually copy and paste the previous report.
Advertisements inside of free-to-play games would appear natively within the game rather than as pop-ups; one such example would be a real-world advertisement appearing on a billboard inside of a racing game. As with Microsoft’s reported plans, these ads would be targeting free-to-play releases rather than premium games.
Sony, too, will have “strict vetting” of who will be able to advertise within its internal network, disallowing the collection of personal information like names or e-mail addresses. There are several unclear details, however, such as whether or not Sony itself will be taking any cut of the ad revenue from this program.
If this recent reporting is true, we may soon see ads within both Xbox and PlayStation free-to-play games before the end of the year. Sony has not responded to Business Insider’s request for comment, though; as always, take such reporting with a grain of salt until there’s an official announcement.