The company filed a patent describing a system for serving personalized ads to gamers.
The patent(Opens in a new window) was first spotted by Gamesual(Opens in a new window), and is entitled, “Providing customized content for unintrusive online gaming experience.” It describes a system whereby ads can be served to cloud-based streaming or internet-connected games, but those ads are personalized for each player.
The diagrams included with the patent demonstrate personalized ads being applied to billboards in a driving game, hoardings behind a goal in a soccer game, and branding on clothes in sports games. The ads would be served in real-time, appearing at locations deemed “continuously visible,” and based on who is playing, which can be determined by checking the account used to access the game.
Although the patent states this would be an “unintrusive” system of serving ads, it will inevitably lead to developers being asked to ensure a minimum number of locations where ads can be placed and easily seen. During this time, we could see ads appearing on more frequently used objects in environments.
Xbox Series S is already one of Microsoft’s games consoles that requires internet connection to access games. You can also play games from the cloud across a wide range of devices with Game Pass Ultimate, which requires an internet connection. For the personalized ad system to work, the rest of the components are already in place, so Microsoft only needs to implement them so that we can start generating revenue.
