Ads are the key to reaching every gamer on the planet, Microsoft says

Microsoft needs the help of advertisers to fulfill its gaming ambitions.

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Editor's Note: Microsoft has not revealed any concrete plans to bring advertisements to Xbox games on consoles and/or PC.

Earlier this month at CES 2025, Microsoft's advertising group presented some interesting details about what the future of Xbox could look like. Microsoft has been doubling down on making Xbox more accessible than ever before through various endpoints across mobile, console, and PC, and that infrastructure could also host cross-platform advertisements for extra revenue.

We've heard discussions of how ads could work in modern games, namely for cloud gaming--watch an ad, play a game for free. And while exact details haven't been talked about by Xbox management, Microsoft apparently thinks it can't deliver games to everyone without the help of advertisers.

This could indicate that Microsoft plans to roll out some sort of ad-supported game delivery subscription, perhaps via Microsoft Cloud Gaming.

So where does this all come from? In a recent presentation at CES 2025 (Microsoft Advertising: Get in the Game: The Future of Entertainment & Media), Microsoft Advertising VP of global revenue and business planning Jonathan Stringfield said some very interesting things on the topic:

"At Microsoft Gaming, we have this big bold mission: To bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. And to do this, there needs to be a means through which individuals can access gaming. To reach everyone on the planet, we need to be able to give them access.

"And we're doing that, and I think we're well on our way with the Xbox platform. But if we think about other forms of entertainment that have scaled globally to every person on the planet, think television, think movies, think all these other forms of entertainment, they were able to do so based upon and in tandem with partnerships with brands.

"Through means like advertising, being able to extend the reach of these forms of entertainment to reach consumer in ways that are flexible and naturalistic to them.

"In terms of the overall opportunity, it's because of the scale and pervasiveness of gaming."

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Stringfield goes on to say that Xbox's unified structure across all platforms is a unique opportunity for advertisers to deliver ads and content.

"Xbox is conceivably one of the few player experiences, and also one of the few advertiser experiences, that can access players across all modalities of play."

And like TV and radio, Microsoft's gaming platforms would likewise rely on ads to facilitate expansion.

"These partnerships are important to us because if we're going to attain this mission of bringing the joy of community and gaming to everyone on the planet, we're going to need your help to do so."

Specifics and optics remain unclear, but the ABK buyout has armed Microsoft with King's billion-dollar mobile adtech platform. Coupled with Xandr, and an ever-expanding cloud presence, Microsoft could be uniquely positioned to trailblaze how advertisements evolve in the video games industry.