When it comes to gaming, Microsoft is not just about Xbox, the popular gaming console it introduced in 2001. Microsoft VP of Global Revenue & Business Planning Jonathan Stringfield wants brands to know that they can reach a broad ecosystem of gamers not just on its console but on mobile devices and PCs. “Consumers expect to be able to watch entertainment across platforms,” he said during a CES 2025 panel discussion. “That’s what we’re doing in the gaming space. And that’s a space that is exploding — not just in overall numbers but who those gamers are.”

In three to five years, more than 50 percent of the global population will be playing games, reported Stringfield, who added that currently 40 percent of the world’s population play games. As a demographic, gamers break down evenly between men and women, and the average age is 33 years old.

“They’ve been playing games for most of their lives,” he pointed out. Although gamers can access content through mobile, consoles and PCs, the audiences exclusive to only one of those platforms is small.

“Xbox is conceivably one of the few platforms and ecosystems that players and advertisers can reach across platforms, going across mobile, PC and console,” said Stringfield, who added that Xbox includes “one of the [industry’s] largest subscription-based libraries.”

To talk about how Microsoft partners with brands, Stringfield introduced Activision Blizzard Head of Gaming Business Success Strategy Claire Nance. (Activision Blizzard was acquired by Microsoft in October 2023.) Nance reiterated that Microsoft provides gaming across all three platforms, which meets consumers expectations and provides an interesting challenge for advertisers and brands.

“There is no one set way for how we bring brand experiences to gaming,” she said. “We have to tailor them to the platforms.” But, she added, there are still some core principles across platforms.

“One of those core principles is that we don’t want brand experiences within the games that disrupt the game experience — we want them to be seamless,” she explained. “Gamers don’t like anything to break the immersion. In gaming, you want to fit within the environment.” But that doesn’t mean that gamers don’t like ads within games.

“When the ad fits right in the game, players can be open to that,” she said. The company studied primarily mobile users, who they found to be “much more discerning” than other gamer demographics. “That ran against the perception that cross-platform players would be more hardcore,” she noted.

To all the groups, the important elements were “the ability to skip an ad, to opt in and also that the ads themselves are shorter than 30 seconds.” “They want an element of control,” Nance suggested. What adds to their experience are rewards and additive experiences.

“In mobile gaming, if a player finishes a level and watches an ad and then gets rewarded for their time, it’s a very clear value exchange,” she said. “With an additive experience, it’s not just in-gamer rewards but the ad itself, such as a custom mini-games,” she said. “Eighty percent think these experiences are fun.”

When done right, it’s very effective. She pointed to a Candy Fragrance campaign on “Candy Crush” that enabled gamers to get a free sample of the fragrance. “Within 24 hours, 40,000 samples were given away,” she said. “It was seamless, it didn’t interrupt, and the IP worked nicely with the fragrance. It was fun, engaging and there was a reward at the end.”