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Sony may be looking at ways to incorporate ads from “non-endemic” brands into its console, as the company increasingly looks for ways to maximise profits.
Digiday spotted a series of new job listings posted last month by the platform holder, which imply it’s looking to explore new advertising opportunities across the PlayStation ecosystem.
One role based at its headquarters in San Mateo specifically seeks a Director of Client Partnerships, which would be responsible for partnering with major brands and selling emerging ad opportunities.
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It’s perhaps worth noting that these could encompass a broad range of strategies, including PS Plus partnerships, PS Store placements, or even collaborations on content.
But I think crucial to the job listing is that it specifically mentions “non-endemic” brands, meaning the scope here extends beyond promoting upcoming games like GTA 6 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, and is instead looking at non-gaming products, like Coca-Cola or McDonalds.
This isn’t Sony’s first dalliance with console advertising: it controversially added commercials to WipEout HD on the PS3 all the way back in 2008 – although these were promptly pulled from the game after a negative reaction.
EA recently announced plans to bolster its in-game advertising, as it looks for ways to service the debt caused by its $55 billion leveraged buyout, which closed this week.
But to be fair to the American publisher, its games – like EA Sports FC 27 and Madden NFL 27 – do naturally lend themselves to advertising.
While PlayStation is forecasting record breaking profits for this current fiscal year, it’s clear the company is feeling the pinch in an economic environment that’s not particularly favourable right now.
There’s a feeling that the console market has stagnated, with younger players preferring evergreen games on mobile and PC, like Minecraft and Roblox.
Moreover, games are becoming increasingly more expensive to make, while hardware prices have skyrocketed on the back of a component crisis caused by AI-led demand. It’s expected the PS6 will cost over $1,000 at this point.
Sony’s solution has been to squeeze its most loyal customers, raising the prices of PS Plus and even recently announcing the death of physical games, guaranteeing it gets control of the sales environment for games on its console.
Ads could be the next step towards monetising its increasingly frustrated playerbase, but I think we’d need to wait to see how they’re integrated.
Fan sentiment is at the lowest it's ever been right now, so I don’t think shoving Big Macs in our faces before we boot Battlefield 6 is going to go down too well.