EA has teams looking at “thoughtful implementations” of ads “inside its game experiences”

EA CEO Andrew Wilson has revealed plans to “harness the power” of its game communities and use advertising as a “meaningful driver of growth” for the company.

In EA’s latest financials reportWilson fielded comments from investors, advising that while the megacorp needs to be “very thoughtful about advertising”, given “many, many billions of hours” are spent on its games, “advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for [EA]”.

“To answer your question on advertising broadly, again, I think it’s still early on that front,” Wilson said. “And we have looked over the course of our history to be very thoughtful about advertising in the context of our play experiences.

“But again, as we think about the many, many billions of hours spent, both playing, creating, watching and connecting and where much of that engagement happens to be on the bounds of a traditional game experience, our expectation is that advertising has an opportunity to be a meaningful driver of growth for us.

“We’ll be very thoughtful as we move into that, but we have teams internally in the company right now looking at how we do very thoughtful implementations within our game experiences,” Wilson added. “But more importantly, as we start to build community and harness the power of community beyond the bounds of our games, how do we think about advertising as a growth driver in those types of experiences?

In the same call to shareholders, House said EA was amassing its “largest Battlefield team in franchise history” to work across “connected multiplayer and single-player experiences.”

“Our teams have listened to the community, have learned valuable lessons, and are driving to the future,” Wilson said. “Motive, armed with cutting-edge Frostbite technology and compelling storytelling, is joining DICE, Criterion, and Ripple Effect to build a Battlefield universe across connected multiplayer and single-player experiences. This is the largest Battlefield team in franchise history.”