On July 27, 2022, Google updated its developer policies for in-game ads for mobile games on their Play Store. Announced in a 

 titled “Better Ads Experiences, the company called out the terrible state of abusive ad experiences across the mobile game landscape, accompanied by visual examples of non-skippable, interruptive, deceptive and inappropriate ads. Notably – and not surprisingly for anyone who plays games on a mobile phone – the one and only type of advertisement that Google specifically exempted from obliteration was… the rewarded ad

 Here’s the exact language (emphasis added): “This policy does not apply to 

 which are explicitly opted-in by users (for example, an ad that developers explicitly offer a user to watch in exchange for unlocking a specific game feature or a piece of content).”

 moment. While I don’t really take pleasure in others’ misfortunes, I can’t help but get a kick out of this announcement. A decade ago when I was head of global brand partnerships at Electronic Arts, I led a team that proposed, evangelized and helped convince Google to enter into the in-game ad business with a rewarded ad platform. It was in our interests to have Google on board to help improve the quality of brands involved and the safety of the experience for gamers. Initially, the idea of “incentivized” ads was considered heresy to the Google founders, who reportedly shot the idea down several times. It took a couple more years and lots of meetings to finally get across the notion that interruptive and pre-roll type ads would never fly for free-to-play gamers and that value exchange was the key to any in-game ad platform’s success. Eventually, Google conceded and jumped into the in-game SDK space full bore.

While finally eliminating the outrageously egregious ad experiences in mobile games is a good start, it really doesn’t address perhaps the most perplexing aspect of in-game ads in mobile -- and the primary reason that leading brands have conceded the landscape to direct-response and app-install advertisers. When I was one of the creators of the innovative “rewarded ad” platform BrandBoost™ at WildTangent, circa 2002, I never could have imagined that games would end up with ads for other, often competitive, games as the key driver of revenue outside of in-app purchases. But that is exactly the state of mobile in-game advertising today. By far, the leading ad monetization comes from other games, with the entire $100B mobile games marketplace arbitraging players among themselves and hoping to shill the non-spenders out to other developers for a fee, all while retaining and capturing the whales, dolphins and minnows who spend a lot, some or a bit of money in the largely F2P mobile ecosystem. (For more on this “monetization trap,” read Eric Seufert at 

From the perspective of players, seeing ads for other games is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, to them those may be the most relevant ads. But there is a reason why King Games and Activision specifically don’t allow competitive game ads to run in 

, or why the NFL doesn’t air ads for the NBA during its broadcasts -- it just doesn’t make sense. Why risk the audience decay? And yet this has become the backbone of the business model for several newly minted IPO game ad-tech companies as well as a big revenue driver for Facebook, Google and others. What we now have is a giant treadmill operation in which a game sells ad space to other games and then uses that ad revenue to fund acquisition campaigns to buy ads on other games that reach similar players. But as anyone who has tried to keep ratcheting up the speed and angle of a treadmill during a workout knows, eventually it will come to an exhausting end.

That capitulation is near: Apple with its ATT (App Tracking Transparency) toggle for consumers and Google with its pending privacy changes are cutting off (at least for second and third parties) the deep level of unique SDK-level player data that the games have been trading on for years, fueling efficient ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend) and player growth for developers. Already the earnings of ad-tech leaders like AppLovin, Unity and IronSource have been hit hard, along with platforms like Snap and Meta (Facebook). And now, Google is throwing down the ad-standards gauntlet as part of the 

, which will surely send user acquisition, ad efficiency and in-game ad revenues down another peg, at least near-term.

Is there a silver lining to all this upheaval? I’d like to think the rapid deterioration of app-install efficiency creates a window of opportunity for the industry to rethink the use of rewarded-ad space in mobile games. Maybe game developers cleaning up their experiences will lead to a new, more pristine environment for players and the brands that by all rights would want to engage with them – perhaps by helping them unlock in-game content in return for a few seconds of engagement, resulting in turn for more than a few moments of joy and appreciation for the consumer products and services that made such rewards possible.

That’s certainly the philosophy behind the approach my team and I have taken in another large and extremely valuable F2P game market: console and PC games. Over the past year and a half, we’ve built up 

 from scratch into the only player-first, rewarded experience custom-made for big-screen console and PC titles. Our focus is entirely on providing gamers with a beneficial value exchange, developers with a non-deletive ad model, and brands with a uniquely viable way to finally reach young, highly engaged players in a benevolent and highly appreciated manner.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment at 

 how PlayerWON® enhances the experience for F2P console and PC gamers while driving lifetime value and in-game spending for publishers.

There's now a golden window of opportunity for the industry to rethink the use of rewarded-ad space in mobile games. 

Escaping the Mobile Game Ad Treadmill With Rewarded Brand Advertising

The PlayerWON Model Allows Brands to Break Through with Elusive Audiences Via TV-Quality Video Ads in Hugely Popular Console and PC Games

NEW YORK – PlayerWON®, a division of Simulmedia, presented its innovative in-game video advertising platform for free-to-play (F2P) console and PC games at the first-annual 

With time spent playing video games increasing substantially in recent years, according to 

, gaming has become the top recreational activity over both linear TV and streaming for the male 18-34 demographic. Brand advertisers are in search of an engaging and scalable manner to connect with this passionate but extremely elusive audience.

 gives brands access to exclusive in-game inventory that allows them to extend their reach beyond television and deliver premium TV-quality creative to this highly valuable audience. Players can receive in-game rewards or currency in exchange for electing to view immersive, full-screen video advertisements (which are often the same 15-, 30- or 60-second creatives that brands are already running on linear or connected TV). The result is a surprise-and-delight experience for gamers that is proven to drive brand awareness and brand affinity for advertisers.

Gamers have 200% more purchasing power than non-gamers, according to Newzoo, and proprietary surveys and brand-lift studies from PlayerWON found that players who chose to watch video advertisements delivered via this platform reported a 306% increase in purchase intent, a 97% increase in brand perception and a 43% increase in brand recognition.

Thanks to PlayerWON, brands can unlock incremental audiences by placing their ads in top 20 F2P console and PC games -- the industry’s fastest-growing category, whose devoted players vastly outnumber the consumers of most TV series and movies -- with seamless campaign activation, management and reporting.

“With PlayerWON, brand advertisers have a unique opportunity to deliver compelling, TV-style video ads to consumers that are almost impossible to reach otherwise. Gamers love receiving cool rewards that enhance their playing experience. And for developers, this creates a new revenue stream, while also driving player retention, lifetime value and in-game spending,” said Dave Madden, President of PlayerWON. “Everybody wins!”

®
PlayerWON® is the first engagement and monetization platform for free-to-play (F2P) console and PC video games that lets players earn valuable rewards in exchange for watching premium, high-quality sponsored videos. PlayerWON enhances and enriches the playing experience for gamers by providing them with opportunities to earn valuable in-game rewards, while driving engagement, retention, lifetime value and additional revenue for publishers and developers. For advertisers, agencies and marketers, PlayerWON is the only viable means to reach highly valuable but otherwise extremely elusive audiences inside games and reward them for viewing sponsored video messaging. For more information, visit 

, the leader in truly cross-channel TV and video advertising.

PlayerWON reveals how a reward-based, opt-in model allows brands to deliver TV-quality video that raises awareness and surprises and delights gamers.

PlayerWON® Presents Unique In-Game Video Advertising Platform at First-Annual IAB PlayFronts

I’ve been fascinated by the power of entertainment ever since video games and pop culture sent my imagination into flight when I was an Air Force brat in Northern California. That led me first to studying screenwriting from USC and then to the world of game development, where I was fortunate enough to work for companies like Activision, Disney and Scopely as well as multiple indie developers. While focused on creating quality entertainment for players that made enough money to keep the lights on at my studios, I also discovered a passion for finding the perfect integration of monetization and artistic expression in gaming.

The data and the challenges involved have been endlessly fascinating, but the Machiavellian way that many folks in space approach monetization has been disappointing. Far too often, the concern is with turning a quick and momentary boost in revenue than with producing fun experiences for players. By contrast, at my current company PlayerWON®, we’re on a mission to make video games more accessible for all gamers regardless of background with a unique engagement and monetization platform that rewards players for choosing to watch brand-sponsored video, which in turn drives lifetime revenue and in-game spending for developers.

Because what we’re doing at PlayerWON is so novel and potentially revolutionary, it’s natural for developers who are accustomed to more traditional monetization models to question if and how sponsored video can fit into modern game design. So I’d like to take the opportunity to address some of the most common queries and concerns that we receive:

Does rewarded video hurt a game developer’s brand?

 that PlayerWON delivers does not hurt the game’s brand. PlayerWON partners only with highly respected national and global companies that bring in their own brand equity and creativity. In addition, our sponsored-video platform respects players and rewards them for their time and attention with items that enhance their gameplay experience. In this way, game developers that partner with PlayerWON are viewed by their players as generous and gamer-friendly.

How does PlayerWON integrate rewarded video into gameplay without hurting the experience and making it feel less fun for players?

 experience never breaks the intent of the player and fits smoothly into the core loop gameplay. Every game has a natural ebb and flow where areas of action are followed by cooldown periods where the player earns their rewards and can plan out their next action. These cooldown periods are where rewarded video works great. Players can chill out, earn some rewards and learn about high-quality brands. None of this breaks their intention so it does not feel intrusive to the player. We actually ran a controlled study to ensure that the experience was fun. The results unequivocally showed that the integration of rewarded video into a game improved all key performance indicators associated with player engagement and in-game spending. Player log-ins increased 17%, microtransaction spending increased 11%, and the amount of game sessions played increased 22%.

Will rewarded video spark a backlash against the developers who implement it amongst the core gamer community active on social media such as Reddit, Twitter and Twitch?


We know that’s a big concern, but our research (based on surveys of gamers active on these social networks) actually indicates that

 77% of players would happily watch brand sponsorships for in-game rewards

. It’s clear to us that players understand the value exchange between providing their attention and gaining in-game rewards, and often they feel that this is a fair way to compensate the game developer for ongoing support of the game. There will always be a vocal minority who firmly disagree with watching any sponsored content, which is why we have made the PlayerWON experience completely optional for players. More importantly, the opt-in offers no negative consequences to those that choose to ignore it.

Will rewards from sponsored video upset the balance of the free-to-play game economy?


We lean towards the experience of talented game economists and product managers who have dedicated their careers to designing game economies. The great thing about the PlayerWON sponsored-video experience is that rewards are completely under the discretion of the game development team. We recommend designs that use a flexible variable reward system so that the precise expected value of every sponsored video reward can be A/B tested on the backend. We also recommend rewards that scale and grow with the user so that they are always relevant within the context of the player’s experience.

What value can rewarded video add for a game that is already performing well?


Rewarded video is an engagement tool that is a great way to add supplemental revenue to the game without distracting from the gameplay. The secret is that the rewarded video monetizes all users instead of just the players that would be considered “whales” or superfans. Rewarded video is about incentivizing your players to watch high-quality sponsored videos in exchange for rewards they can use inside the game. In this way, you can add an income source that monetizes your players while also providing those players the tools to continue having fun in your game.

When I was growing up, video games often felt like something only those with money could really afford. Disadvantaged people were stuck playing last-generation consoles and games that were on significant discount. Free-to-play gaming has changed all of that, of course -- now anyone with a PC, console or even a phone has access to hundreds of games, with many of them being super fun.

And that’s why I’m so happy to have the opportunity at PlayerWON to help keep those free games viable for game developers, and to ensure that the experiences are satisfying for the players above all.

 to set up time to talk about the benefits of rewarded video.

How Sponsored Video Fits Into Modern Game Design

In September 2013, a new entertainment industry milestone was reached and it had nothing to do with TV program viewership, album sales or opening weekend at the box office. A new record was set when the release of the 14th installment of the video game, 

, earned $800 million in worldwide sales in its first 24 hours. It was the biggest launch day 

Gaming is already bigger than Hollywood. According to a report by research and consulting firm Accenture, the gaming industry is valued at more than $300 billion – more than the combined markets for movies and music. In 2020, over 214 million people in the U.S. reported playing video games at least one hour per week, and three-quarters of all U.S. households include at least one person who plays video games.

Gaming grew even bigger during the coronavirus pandemic, so it’s not surprising that more companies want a piece of the action. In January 2021, Microsoft reported $5 billion in quarterly revenue from gaming for the first time, in part because of a new generation of Xbox consoles.

According to Accenture, gamers are spending an average 16 hours a week playing, eight hours a week watching or participating in game streams, and six hours a week interacting in game forums and communities. Clearly, there is a huge opportunity for brands who want to reach this audience. It just has to be done in a way that doesn’t interrupt the experience that brought them to the game in the first place.

Reach and Reward: How Brands Can Win With Gamers

 to learn about how brand sponsors can successfully engage with players inside their favorite games while enhancing their experience.

With games more popular than ever, there's a huge opportunity for brands to connect with a growing audience -- as long as they realize that the players are in charge.

How Brands Can Reach and Reward Gamers: A Playbook

Since the invention of the first computer-based video game 60 years ago, gaming has blossomed into one of the most profitable entertainment industries in the world. Gaming is now a $160 billion global industry with 3 billion video game players worldwide in 2020. Nearly two-thirds of American homes have a gamer who plays video games regularly. Gaming now spans across multiple platforms and is at the forefront of technology.

The mobile technology boom revolutionized the industry and opened the doors to a new generation of gamers, integrating it with popular culture and creating a profitable juggernaut that has surpassed even the movie industry. Yet, the brand sponsor-supported revenue models that have fortified TV and the internet for decades have not worked nearly as well in gaming.

Gamers have successfully (and justifiably!) rejected sponsored messaging that annoys them and interrupts their experience, but we think there’s an exciting opportunity in gaming for brands to present themselves in a way that will be embraced by gamers and developers alike, particularly in the exploding category of free-to-play PC and console games.


Why It’s So Good to Be in the Gaming Business Today

Why Brands Must Follow the Gamer’s Rules

PlayerWON®: A Game Changer for In-Game Sponsorship

A Game Changer for Brands: The New Opportunity to Reach PC and Console Games

Sometime around 2009, I emailed Reed Hastings to pitch him the notion that Netflix needed to add an ad-supported tier instead of relying solely on paid subscribers, which I felt my company at the time could provide through our innovative BrandBoost™ value-exchange ad platform. Reed was kind enough to promptly reply to me with a note saying, in effect, “Thanks, but Netflix will never have an ad-supported model.”

Flash forward to January 2022 and the recent slowdown in Netflix subscriber growth, which has tanked the company’s share price after earnings. That is a direct result of consumer price sensitivity. To paraphrase Needham & Company’s excellent media analyst Laura Martin on CNBC, every time Netflix raises its price, it reduces its total addressable market, especially when all of its competitors provide the option of ad-supported tiers. When the CNBC interviewer pushed her on the notion that Netflix users prefer “ad-free,” her immediate response was: “Yeah, the rich ones.”

While it may have taken over a decade, and the rise of lower-priced and even free ad-supported video competitors, Netflix’s day of reckoning should be a 

 wake-up call for video game publishers and cloud game services. For over 20 years, I’ve heard from all ranks of game developers and publishing executives that their players hate ads. Much like Reed Hastings in 2009, several have bluntly told me, “We will never put ads in our games.”

Amazingly, traditional video gaming business models have largely been built on the concept of extracting as much revenue as humanly possible from a fraction of the player base -- the ones willing to pony up for season passes, digital currency, items and boosts that are the hallmark of the “live service” economies of the biggest and best games. The most successful free-to-play (F2P) game of all time, 

, converted just 22% of its monthly active players into spenders in 2018, a number that is likely below 10% today. EA’s 

, meanwhile, recently reported that it monetizes 20% (i.e., eight out of ten) of its players in the post-purchase “live service area.” Outside a handful of top games, most AAA titles probably convert 5% or less of their players to spenders. In the mobile games sphere, which is inherently more global and spread across a less wealthy player base than console owners in North America and Western Europe, the ratio is less than 2%.

Game company executives have long held up Netflix as their shining North Star. “See,” they say, “we don’t need an ad-supported model, just look at Netflix.” This is a surprising and unscientific response from an industry that is built on rigorous analytics and data-based decision making. The fact of the matter is that players are not only cool with an ad-supported model, but most gamers (77% in our own Reddit surveys), say it is something that they would greatly appreciate.

For a portion of society that has the financial wherewithal, like Netflix subscribers, paying full boat is fine. But the 

majority of gamers are already voting with their wallets, given the low- spending percentages. They want and need optionality on price and access to all that exciting new game content.

This coming spending dilemma in the video game industry is only going to get more acute as cloud gaming takes over as the key access point content. Microsoft has been building up its first-party content library for Xbox Game Pass, most notably with their move to acquire Activision Blizzard. Given their other big recent purchase, advertising platform Xandr from AT&T, one could rightly assume that Microsoft sees a path to an expanded TAM (total addressable market) by removing price as a barrier to entry. So yes, expect free access to XBox Game Pass down the road, courtesy of brand sponsors, a.k.a. advertisers. There are a lot of smart people in Redmond, Washington and certainly they can see that Spotify, Hulu and other cloud content services derive around 70% of their users and a big chunk of their payers via offering a free tier.

 want is a bad ad experience. That certainly won’t fly with perhaps the most vocal and socially connected group of consumers ever. They already feel -- and loudly communicate on Discord, Reddit, Twitter, etc. -- that game companies are sometimes over-monetizing their games. To get this right, video game companies will need to get comfortable with the notion of ads and thus putting their players in control to decide when and how to engage with brands --with full transparency around the value exchange taking place. Gamers today understand that their time and attention is valuable to marketers, and they want equal footing in such a relationship.

Had Reed Hastings and Netflix realized that a one-size-fits-all approach to their consumers' price sensitivity was miscalculated, the door might not have opened so wide to ad-supported competitors like HBO Max, Peacock and Paramount+ to slide right in. The game companies that provide economic optionality for their players will also reap the benefits of an expanded total addressable market and build much healthier game economies that scale from offering all players types of payment, including advertising engagement, that they can get behind. The ones that don’t heed their own player feedback and desires might end up as forgotten as Qwikster.

 how PlayerWON® can help brands reach and award passionate gamers, while increasing engagement, lifetime value and revenue for developers.

Netflix’s huge stock market loss should be a wake-up call for video game publishers and cloud game services reluctant to consider ad-supported business models.

Is Netflix’s Big Drop a Warning for Game Companies?

You’d have to be living in an alternate universe to not have been exposed to the hype around “brand experiences” in the metaverse (which is largely taking place on Roblox for now). But looking past the industry chatter, how are these initiatives actually playing out in, you know, the real world?

 was brilliant, garnered a ton of earned media, enjoyed great player traction on Roblox and no doubt helped boost 2021 sales for the annual $5 Boorito meal promotion. Meanwhile, 

, a more sustainable skateboarding experience that launched in early September on Roblox, looked like it had some 

, but has since trailed off -- maybe it can be revitalized, maybe not.

More worryingly, when viewed against the greater context of Roblox and its top-performing games, the brand experiences from numerous other companies like Gucci and Nike seem to be getting kicked to the curb pretty quickly. 

 on Roblox (launched mid-November) typically sits at around 200 live players in its virtual HQ.

 by Paris Hilton, launched on Roblox around New Year’s Eve, has a total of five (5) users visiting as I type. Compare those stats to 

, a life-simulation game on Roblox, which typically boasts over half a million concurrent users at a time. The metrics don’t bode well for the brand experiences.

Making successful games is a tough, hit-driven business. Game experiences need to be thought of as “live services.” That means that unlike a campaign for a new SKU or brand launch, games cannot just be released for a short duration window in the same manner as an inspiring Super Bowl spot, left alone and then replaced by the next campaign or promotion. Video games are the most competitive and largest interactive media format ever; running a game means running a 

. Launching a game experience is just the start, with the real work coming in perfecting the core loop, progression, content updates and fixes of things that need fixing.

Live-service game teams on franchises like 

 can number in the multiple hundreds of highly compensated and skilled developers, designers, artists, analysts, economists and testers (I recently noticed one Roblox developer touting $135K starting jobs on their LinkedIn feed this weekend). The stakes are incredibly high when it comes to winning the hearts and minds – and time and attention -- of players. The $500 million in developer royalties for 2021 announced by Roblox will certainly not get spread evenly across the platform’s 1.3 million developers, as an average of $384 per developer does not a business make.

Consumer brands that want to be metaverse trailblazers -- like Nike -- are unlikely to invest in building out their own live-service games organizations, so big companies are more often than not destined to be “one and done” in the competitive metaverse games space. Hiring a third party to build your metaverse experience will fall short for the simple reason that the best talent is, by definition, going to chase the most upside, which will clearly come from the ownership of in-game monetization and transactions, not from set development fees from a brand.

Sure, meta-game agencies will pop up and thrive in this first wave of euphoria, but that will die down pretty quickly as the economics will drive the best talent to the upside of ownership, as has always been the case in the video game world. My own former company, WildTangent, dominated the marketplace for building brand games in the 2000’s for companies like Nike, Coke, Pepsi, Visa, Unilever and GM only to exit that business to focus on building hit games like 

 for distribution in our online games store.

Perhaps brand experiences in the metaverse will best translate to the NFT marketplaces, with the optimal opportunities coming for brands that sell virtual items to fanatical fan bases who love and covet their shoes, bags, tacos, etc. and want to convey the status of owning a unique collectible based on them. That at least seems doable and scalable, and theoretically opens up a new profit motive for the iconic brands that have millions or billions already invested in their equity with consumers.

While I’m pretty sure that the best ways for brands to win over players in the metaverse will not include transforming into game developers per se, there is still a tremendous opportunity for brands to build equity, loyalty and purchase intent with gamers in the coming Web3 paradigm. And one thing that I can say with 100% confidence is that the recipe for success will be based upon 

Players covet content that costs money or takes hours to grind to earn. Brands that can figure out how to sponsor and unlock all that added-value content for consumers will come out on top of their competitors who do not understand the importance of providing a path to progression and status for their fans. Perhaps a more scalable and sustainable path for brands in the metaverse is to stick to their core of making the world's greatest products and generating demand for those products in both the real and virtual worlds.

 how PlayerWON® can help brands reach and award passionate gamers, while increasing engagement, lifetime value and revenue for developers.

Looking past the hype, are brand experiences in the metavers like custom Roblox games actually scalable or sustainable in the long run? 

Brand Experiences in the Metaverse: Don’t ‘Just Do It’

Coming into 2021, video games were already a $160 billion global industry with 3 billion players worldwide. In the U.S. alone, nearly two-thirds of all homes include a gamer who plays hours per day. Going into the 2022, the forecast is even more jaw-dropping. As the influential 

Activate Technology and Media Outlook 2022

 notes: “Gaming is the new technology paradigm.”

Over the course of the past year, we’ve charted the growing recognition of the central role that games occupy in our hyperconnected culture as well as both the challenges and enormous opportunities that position presents for gamers, developers and brands alike. As we prepare to level up in 2022, here’s a look back at the coverage of this new era for gaming from us as well as our parent company Simulmedia:

Why Games Will Be the Next Dominant Tech Platform


Games will become the dominant platform for digital activities over the next decade. As a result, games will become one of the most important platforms for brand sponsors and marketers as well. It will absolutely require amazing spots, with really great, relevant creative. Sticking in ads from programmatic feeds or taking any old ad off TV or YouTube won’t cut it. 

Games Are Ready For a Video Sponsorship Battle Royale


It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that a dozen or more video games with opt-in and rewarded ad formats will soon rival or even surpass both linear and ad-supported streaming services in the ability to deliver younger audiences, particularly younger men, to brands. 



Can Ad-Supported Games Replace Lost TV Ratings?


For sure, linear TV is losing audience share among younger viewers and ad-supported streaming services are going to capture a significant portion of those ad budgets over time. But keep an eye on video games. They don’t just reach audiences under 40; they 

 them. As TV ads become mainstream within video game environments, TV dollars will follow. 

, we may soon see an explosion of high-quality game experiences brought to players for free, courtesy of brands, on metaverse platforms like 

. But will this evolution in advergaming succeed where the original model fizzled out? 

Build Healthy Video Game Economies by Giving Players What They Want


In-game advertising has historically been considered to be a scary proposition. But surveys of console and PC gamers across the top premium and F2P games reveal that over 77% of players welcome the opportunity to convert 15 or 30 seconds of their attention into valuable in-game content and rewards. 


Video game businesses are increasingly being built around enticing players to make a financial transaction to unlock new game features. But there is only one sponsorship model that recognizes the player as a true contributor to the game economy, turning their time and attention into a valuable currency for them to “spend” on that paid in-game content they covet. 

How Brands Can Surprise and Delight Gamers Every Day


Years of planning, production of unique promotional packaging, and huge teams of personnel can combine to provide gamers with free content they love and positive sentiment for the brands and publishers involved. But it’s a time-consuming, expensive process that can now be avoided – while still producing the same great results for all. 

The Future of Media Is Crypto... and Video Games Are Pointing the Way

 built an efficient platform for creators to make, sell and buy unique IP at a scale and speed never before seen. Its economy and governance are decentralized, which means it doesn’t depend as much on third-party distributors to reach users and build customer relationships with them, compared to most app businesses. 

A Cheat Code to Help Brands Win With Gamers


When’s the last time you watched an entire TV show without looking at your phone? Video games might be the only medium in the world whose audience is paying 100% attention. That makes players ideal for brands to engage with – if they can do it in a way that’s both compelling and respectful to gamers. We reveal the rules needed to succeed. 

PlayerWON® Is Ready to Give Gamers Control of Brand Sponsorships


It’s time for brand sponsorship in games to take another evolutionary leap forward. With PlayerWON, gamers will decide whether they want to see brand videos or not. And if they do opt in and watch to completion, they’ll earn immediate and long-term rewards to use in the game. We didn’t design PlayerWON like this just because we love games (though we do), but because it’s what 

 how PlayerWON lets free-to-play console and PC gamers earn valuable rewards in exchange for watching high-quality brand-sponsored videos, while increasing engagement and revenue for developers.

As a new era dawns for video games, we look back at some of our biggest stories of 2021 about the challenges and opportunities for players, developers and brands.

Player ’21: Look Back at Our Coverage of a Game-Changing Year

I have to say, I absolutely love the new iteration of the Mountain Dew and Doritos 

. Why? Because it represents the next chapter of a long-running program specifically built to provide players with something they really want: 

 in-game content – in this case, double XP. Words like 

 come to mind. There’s no doubt that this near-annual fall program drives benefits for all three stakeholders involved: the game, its players and the PepsiCo brands that get an opportunity to build loyalty with those gamers.

During my tenure heading up the global brand partnership organization at Electronic Arts, I had the privilege of overseeing a number of similar mashups with PepsiCo, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and other massive consumer brands across franchises such as 

 to name a few. So I can say with confidence that the amount of people, work and costs that go into these programs make them inherently rare and highly unique. A great partnership can take years to plan, negotiate and execute given the game development timelines, the retail packaging deadlines and associated opportunity costs. That’s a big reason why the big ones tend to become somewhat perennial.

What makes a partnership like Dew/Doritos X 

 so successful is the notion of value exchange. Players are asked to commit to buying something for which they generally have a strong predilection and, in return, they earn something of material value (like 2XP, experience points at double the normal rate to increase their rank) in one of their favorite games. It’s a clear win not only for the participating brand(s) and the gamers, but also for the game itself, thanks to the inevitable boost in player engagement generated by all that free content.

However, it must be noted, the bespoke nature of these mega partnerships make them inevitably non-scalable and certainly 

 an option for most publishers or brands. Consequently, these deals are few and far between, which is why they generate so much buzz when they do happen.

But just imagine if brands could capture this exact same surprise-and-delight mechanic with players in their favorite games -- generating similar loyalty and the halo effect of a rewarding value exchange -- without having to commit to years of planning, promotional packaging and teams of people to manage the process.

Well, imagine no more. This is precisely why we created PlayerWON®, the first dynamic in-game rewards platform for console and PC games. With PlayerWON, we’re able to inspire that amazing, unique feeling of surprise and delight for players that comes from earning 

 valuable in-game content courtesy of brand sponsors. But instead of having to run down to their local 7-Eleven or Target, players can unlock these same rewards 

 they are playing their favorite games, in return for snippets of their attention when they choose to watch a sponsor video between matches or during other idle moments of gameplay, completely under the player’s agency and control.

And guess what? The outcomes are nearly identical to the custom retail partnerships in terms of brand preference, loyalty and purchase intent. Most importantly, this value exchange model can be achieved through a turnkey media buy/sponsorship from brands’ existing TV and video budgets.

PlayerWON is taking the best aspects of brand sponsorship of huge game launches and making them available to players 

 in their favorite games, creating value for gamers who get more 

 content, for brands who can build lasting relationships and for developers who see their player engagement and retention skyrocket.

 how PlayerWON can connect your brand to the most passionate audiences in all of media, while enhancing the playing experience for gamers and driving lifetime value and passive revenue for developers.

Imagine if brands could inspire that unique feeling of surprise and delight for video game players that comes from earning free valuable content without years of planning, promotional packaging and teams of people.

Duty Free: How Brands Can Surprise and Delight Gamers Every Day

When’s the last time you watched an entire television program without looking at your phone? When’s the last time you surfed your mobile device without pausing to do something else? We all multitask, not just at work but also when we’re supposed to be relaxing with a piece of entertainment. Except for gamers. When gamers are sitting in front of their big-screen TV or almost-as-big PC screen, with controllers in hand, they’re definitely not multitasking. In fact, video games might be the only medium in the world whose audience is paying 100% attention.

That makes players the ideal audience for brands to engage with – if they can do it in a way that’s compelling without being intrusive or off-putting for gamers. For the past year, the PlayerWON® team has been working with game developers to test out a unique engagement and monetization experience for free-to-play (F2P) console and PC games that we can prove is rewarding (

) for players, lucrative for publishers and extremely valuable for advertisers.

Here are the core principles that have been keys to our success to date:

 We make sure players always know and feel that they’re in charge of their own experience in terms of viewing brand-sponsored video within games. This is an audience that doesn’t watch a lot of television and is not comfortable with brand spots that just show up on a screen intermittently. They’re more used to scrolling through TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram and having much more control over their feeds. So in a gaming environment, if brands want to interact with them, the gamers really need to feel like it’s on 

2. Reward players for their time & attention.

 This is a sharing-economy demographic. Players really want to be able to earn rewards in their games. Gamers are more than willing to devote time and attention viewing brand-sponsored video in order to unlock great free content. But it’s super important that there’s a clear value exchange, as players understand the inherent value of their time and attention to today’s marketers.

 The enormously popular free-to-play games that are being played on large TV or PC screens are massive 3D productions that can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce with hundreds of developers keeping them live constantly updating. The quality of the sponsored brand messaging sponsorship in games like these has to be commensurate (i.e., TV-quality) with these rich, immersive, big-screen environments. We cannot emphasize enough that the expectation of the quality of brand interaction is extremely high as far as PC and console game players are concerned. That’s why the dozens of campaigns that PlayerWON® is running right now are premium brand messaging – not game ads for other games.

 Anything that interrupts gameplay or creates issues with the game economy is going to get a negative reaction on video game social channels like Reddit, Twitter and Discord. So it’s crucial that the sponsored-video experience truly respects the gamer’s point of view.

Following these principles has resulted in incredibly strong brand metrics for PlayerWON’s brand partners – and, more importantly, has resulted in players spending more time playing the games.

Ultimately, players understand game economies. They want to see their favorite games thrive. PlayerWON offers a way for developers to democratize access to their otherwise paid content and for brands to become heroes with gamers who get to unlock all sorts of great content for free.

 how PlayerWON® can connect your brand with the most passionate audiences in all of media.

We reveal the secrets to winning over gamers through engaging in-game ad experiences that benefit the players, the developers, and the brands.  

Games developers are increasingly recognizing the contribution of their players' time and attention to their overall economy and sharing that upside back with their players, in the form of free in-game virtual goods including vanity items, boosts, characters and game currency, and NFTs, courtesy of brand sponsors.

Free-to-play (F2P) video games were originally considered a race-to-the-bottom innovation that would cannibalize overall game revenue and sacrifice game quality. But instead, F2P games (also known as “freemium”) have revolutionized the industry, first by helping to turn mobile games into the largest and most accessible segment of the market in less than a decade and, more recently, by ushering in a new wave of growth and creativity in the big screen console/PC/metaverse space. What was once a leak in the premium/paid pricing model is now a full-fledged flood of new gaming content coming to the big screen -- for free.

All video game business models are increasingly built around enticing players to make a financial transaction to unlock new game features, such as season passes, characters and items. Known as “live service” spending, this line item accounts for nearly 100% of the revenue for games like 

, and a meaningful chunk of the ongoing revenue from premium games like 

Big screen video game publishers on console and PC are soon going to find themselves in the same scenario that challenges mobile game companies: the fact that less than 5% of gamers actually spend any real money in the live-service game economy in their F2P games; the rest play completely for free.

Yet mobile games have figured out a way to collateralize these non-spending players in their freemium economies, through rewarded in-game video ads. In this model, a player watches a video ad and, in return, earns some sort of a valuable in-game item such as a boost, item or currency. Mobile games convert between 40% to 60% of their players into video ad watchers, meaning that they have largely figured out how to turn increments of 15 and 30 seconds of player attention into a form of sponsored game currency, while also helping keep those players engaged and on a relatively level playing field with those willing or able to pay a fee.

While there are other ways for video games to profit from in-game advertising, such as background billboards or integrated sponsorships, there is only one model that recognizes the player as a true contributor to the game economy, turning their time and attention into a valuable currency for them to “spend” on that paid in-game content they covet.

Once console and PC games developers are confident that they can provide a player-controlled ad experience commensurate in quality and creativity with their rich, immersive game experiences, they too will move to adopt this new form of sponsored currency. Expect increments of time and attention to be the next big payment type in these big screen F2P games and metaverse environments, because it will be the best way to engage and retain their savvy players.

 may be one of the most exciting developments in video games that I can remember in years. Why? Because with 

 and its metaverse, we now have a scalable way for brands to build their own player base of enthusiastic consumers who can immerse themselves in an experience that is uniquely interactive, entertaining and rewarding.

, “an advergame is a form of advertising in video games, in which the video game is developed by or in close collaboration with a corporate entity for purposes of advertising a brand-name product.” This is essentially the opposite model of existing games that then integrate

The first wave took place circa 2000-2010 and was largely based on new 3D game engine platforms, notably Shockwave and the WildTangent Webdriver. The combination of broadly distributed, free 3D game engine platforms and a generation of gamers moving into leadership roles at ad agencies and brands provided the perfect storm for an explosion of free, high-quality, fun, brand-sponsored games that launched in the web browser.

My company at the time, WildTangent, dominated the market for high-production, console-quality advergames, with individual game budgets approaching $5 million, all funded by brands. A few of the more notable games during this period included 

. A full list of over 100 WildTangent games can be found 

Advergaming 1.0 fizzled out for a number of important reasons: First, the ROI for developers was sub-par and only got worse as brands like Nike set higher bars for what features they wanted in their games. For example, by the third year of our Nike football series, we had no way to meet the global multiplayer and production expectations of the iconic brand and their budget at the same time. It was a huge undertaking with no profit at the end of the day.

Secondly, it became readily apparent that making a fun game was only the start of the campaign, and that driving players to the advergame required a promotional budget that might be two to three times the actual production budget, a big hurdle for many brands and agencies to justify.

And thirdly, the rapid evolution of first downloadable, then social, and then finally mobile games meant that if you have a talented development studio, you would be far better off making your own hits to sell to consumers, with all the associated upsides.

 and other creator-lead metaverse platforms like 

 in particular, there exists a ready-made player base thirsting for great new content, essentially eliminating the marketing conundrum of 1.0. As proof, when I jumped into 

, day 2 of launch, there were 18,000 concurrent players, while over 3 million players had visited the game area already. These metaverse worlds are also dramatically reducing the complexity and costs of game production, including, in some cases, codeless development and drag and drop environments.

A skateboarding world is a wonderful launching pad for Vans to build lasting and deep connections with its target customer base. It’s a super popular youth activity and a game genre that is ripe for innovation, especially when it comes with a frictionless price of 

 for the gamer. I am sure we will soon see an explosion of high-quality game experiences brought to players for free, courtesy of brands on 

 and other emerging metaverse platforms that achieve scale and simplicity. Advergaming 2.0 has the potential to be infinitely scalable for the right brands and the right type of games.

 game is free, and players can earn a new free item each day, I do find it curious that players are encouraged to buy Vans items in the store to outfit their characters. This feels like a slippery slope of commercialism that might have been mandated by 

 or the developer, The Gang Stockholm, but nonetheless takes some of the benefit to players out of the concept. It will be important to see where this all plays out. If players feel compelled to spend Robux to update and improve their brand games… well, then the developers are really just making a skateboard game (or whatever) and bringing brands in to sponsor some free content. That’s been standard fare in video games for decades and may portend a quick fizzle for Advergaming 2.0. We shall see.

 how PlayerWON® enhances the experience for F2P console and PC gamers while driving lifetime value and in-game spending for publishers.


Thanks to the success of “Vans World,” we may soon see an explosion of high-quality game experiences brought to players for free, courtesy of brands, on metaverse platforms like Roblox, Fortnite and Minecraft. But will this evolution in advergaming succeed where the original model fizzled out?

Advergaming 2.0 & the Metaverse

There is only one advertising model that recognizes the player as a true contributor to the game economy, turning their time and attention into a valuable currency for them to “spend” on that paid in-game content they covet.

The New Currency for Video Games

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