The Pocket Gamer Podcast Episode 89 - Wish Upon A Cat, Shelter From the Storm, and watching ads to stream Xbox games

If a game tells you to expect an ad every hour, does that make it less disruptive? How do you feel about watching ads for games you already own? We try to get our bearings upon Iwan's return in this week's (New and Improved!) Pocket Gamer Podcast, where we tackle everything from promotional materials for an office supply chain to more mobile monetisation mayhem.

Will jumps right into the big topic for this week, which is that Xbox has announced that it'll be testing this new ad-based system for its games streaming service. This means that you'll be streaming games with ads being shown every hour, which raises a lot of questions about how disruptive these will be during each gameplay session. 

Mobile has been doing this for a while now, hasn't it? This brings to mind one of the recent games I've had the pleasure of playing, which is Wish Upon A Cat. This point-and-click adventure, from the very beginning, tells you that it'll show you five ads across the entire experience, and knowing that, it actually made me feel less annoyed with ads, mainly because I was expecting them. Does that mean being aware of the ads makes them less intrusive?

Iwan and Will then discuss the pros and cons of applying ads that are more relevant to the actual game's universe, as well as what exactly it means to be shown ads that add value to the player. Will it make more sense for ads to be integrated seamlessly into games? For instance, in Shelter From the Storm, could a document you're supposed to read perhaps be sponsored by an office supply chain? But that'd just be weird for something like Genshin Impact, wouldn't it?

We throw a lot of random suggestions out into the ether, including having a banner at the bottom of the window (which definitely takes away from the verisimilitude, as Iwan puts it), asking people what kinds of ads they want to see, or having ads run on loading screens. There's also this interesting suggestion Will makes about having hidden codes inside the ads to reward players who've seen it, while Iwan counters that idea with having an IRL coupon you can use to get a free burger somewhere.

It all boils down to how players are going to respond to this, because on mobile, this kind of ad strategy is already pretty common. What do you think about this "new thing" Xbox is trying, though? Send us a carrier pigeon and let us know!

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