Dragon Age veteran suggests in-game product placements could be a better alternative for funding big projects

According to Dragon Age veteran Mark Darrah, the games industry relies too heavily on microtransactions and live-service models. Instead, he suggests adopting the film industry's business model, which includes product placement, to fund large projects without compromising design.

The details:

• In a recent YouTube video posted to his own channel, Darrah compares how movies make money, first through box office, then home release, streaming, and often lucrative product placement, to games, which typically rely on a single purchase followed by ongoing microtransactions or DLC.
• He argues that product placement is “a really small part of video games right now, compared to movies and television,” and suggests it could play a larger role in covering development costs. Darrah cites examples such as The Smurfs' live-action film adaptation, which was "effectively made for zero dollars simply through the sale of product placement."
• Darrah went on to explain that the overreliance on microtransactions within gaming “is overemphasizing certain genres and preventing other genres from flourishing.” For example, free-to-play games could result in high revenues from a dedicated audience, but as the product itself is free with paid content remaining optional, a large portion of players are likely to not spend a dime.
• In terms of subscription services like Xbox Game Pass, the producer stated that some services pay studios based on overall player engagement, which can lead to more live service releases despite growing criticism of the structure. “If I know I’m getting paid for the number of session days—literally the number of different days during which a player logs into my game for any amount of time—I can design my game to optimize for that, even though it might make the experience for the player worse. Even though it might cause people to turn out of my game sooner, to enjoy my game less, to play it for less total minutes, I can optimize to push up the number that I’m being measured against."