Microsoft has filed a patent focused on injecting in-game ads at predictable times during gameplay.
The filing, titled 'Contextually Aware Management of Interactive Software Application Access', describes the process of suspending your game and running "promoted audiovisual content to the user". In laymen's terms, this means ad breaks, which would award you with a credit upon completion. These credits would then act as a token to extend access to the game for a limited amount of time, ranging from 15 minutes to an hour.
Not ideal, however, before we flip a table or two, it's worth stating this doesn't mean it's absolutely going to happen. Microsoft has a history for filing patents that never go anywhere. And, if they do end up happening, they could take a lot of time. We're only now reaping the benefits of a patent filed back in 2022 for what is now Xbox's disc-to-digital.
There's also mention within the patent on when these 'audiovisual content' breaks would occur, stating that they'd be "placed at a variety of predictable times in the content without adversely affecting the user experience". To simplify again, they'd likely sneak in during natural pauses such as loading screens, at the end of a round, or after a boss fight.
This could be something to do with the recent changes to Xbox Cloud Gaming, which now limits gameplay to just 15 hours a month with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Ads have already been introduced on that front too, where players without Game Pass were able to crack on with Xbox Cloud Gaming for free as part of an ad-based tier.
It looks like the system has been designed for both locally installed and streamed titles, and covers all platforms, from consoles and PCs to phones and other smart devices. Hopefully, nothing comes of this, or at the very least, Microsoft implements it responsibly as a free way to let people play rather than shovelling it down our gobs.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/09/microsoft-files-patent-which-could-bring-game-pausing-ads-to-xbox
