Electronic Arts is developing plans to embed advertising more deeply into its games and to help set industry-wide standards for how such ads are shown and measured. VP of advertising and sponsorship Alexander Dao told The Game Business that EA now factors in-game ads into development from the outset, arguing this gives more flexibility over which brands can appear, and that the firm is working with the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Integral Ad Science to standardise in-game advertising practices that could be adopted across the industry.

The advertising platform, unveiled last month, currently focuses on EA's sports titles and uses the Frostbite engine to dynamically place ads, such as stadium billboards, and convert existing advertising assets into 3D in-game objects. Dao suggested the approach could extend beyond sports games, pointing to a past Coach collaboration in The Sims 4. The move comes amid wider industry debate about in-game advertising, with Xbox's Matthew Ball and former BioWare developer Mark Darrah both floating ad-supported models as rising development costs push publishers to explore new revenue streams, following earlier, largely unpopular attempts such as ads in Street Fighter 5.