At the recent EIEF conference, EA exec David Gardner predicted that in-game advertising would become a very important revenue source for future games. It’s not very surprising then that EA has just announced a deal with IGA to incorporate dynamic, contextually sensitive adverts into a selection of its upcoming titles. Yes, ads are coming into your games, whether you want it or not. And the first game to be tested on will be Battlefield 2142.

Frank Sagnier, VP for online and strategic relationships at EA Europe said “The agreement with IGA is a first step in a detailed strategy to deliver advertising in a seamless format”. “We are continually looking at how to bring more connected experiences and services to consumers, and working with a network like IGA is a start to building this dimension of our business”.

As the cost of game development steadily rises, it does seem like a sensible way of generating extra revenue and so will hopefully reduce the cost barrier that puts off new developers. This comes at the risk of lossing gamers due to ads heavily campaigned which should be a rarecase. Newspapers has always been full of ads, and yet it had been the dominant source of news for the majority for decades.