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Speaking at the Harris Nesbitt Media & Entertainment Conference Bryan Lee, the chief financial officer of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices subdivision has said how in some markets outside of North America there is a possibility that the cost of the Xbox 360 and its software could be subsidised by advertising. Lee said how Microsoft is already trialling in-game ads.
“We’ve actually got a couple of games out in the market now on the Xbox platform where we’re trialling some ads and we’ve been working with Massive on those couple of games… We feel very excited about advertising as a potential growth opportunity for the business,” said Lee.
“[In] markets outside of North America, the fundamentals of our business may not hold,” said Lee. “Consumers may not be accustomed to paying $50 for software and buying a $200, $300 or $400 device, an ad model may be a way to augment to kind of make the economics work for everyone.“
It is interesting stuff, and a similar idea has been used in to lower the cost of the Gizmondo handheld, where users are shown ads during periods where the system is idle. Lee also said that a major Xbox 360 ad will be aired during tonight’s (US) episode of Lost.
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