The State Duma proposed limiting the display of advertising in free video games

A group of deputies introduced a bill to the State Duma to limit advertising in video games: it is proposed to establish the maximum duration of the video and the frequency of demonstration, which is not the case now. Advertising in free-to-play games is the main method of monetization, some market participants recall, and its regulation will lead to a repeated fall in the income of developers, who have not yet recovered from the market contraction last year. Other Kommersant interlocutors consider the initiative useful.

Project amendments to the federal law “On Advertising”, regulating the distribution of advertising in video games, was submitted to the State Duma on December 22 by a group of deputies. The bill proposes to regulate advertising in video games. Thus, the duration of advertising in games should not exceed 15 seconds, and it should appear on the user’s screen no more than once every 20 minutes. For children, it is proposed to establish an additional restriction: advertising must correspond to the same age category for which the video game itself is intended. In particular, it is proposed to prevent the demonstration and distribution of certain types of goods, the advertising features of which are established by the third chapter of the Federal Law “On Advertising” (alcohol products, food additives, weapons, betting, digital financial assets).

“The innovations allow us to maintain an adequate balance, when a video game can still be distributed shareware and include advertising, but its duration and quantity will be reasonably limited,” the explanatory note says.

The initiative will have the greatest impact on games in which monetization is based only on displaying advertising, explains Tanks Blitz product director Pavel Stepanov. This is an indie genre (created by individual developers without financial support from publishers), a casual segment (games for a mass audience with simple rules and controls), the expert clarifies. The number of free games available to users will also decrease, says Vladimir Varenik, founder of the community of independent game developers and CEO of Mensa VR. “The hyper-casual gaming genre is monetized through interstitial ads. Limiting the video duration to 15 seconds will make the current monetization model unprofitable,” adds Alexey Skrabtsov, head of mobile at Astrum Entertainment.

He explains that the average length of in-game advertising in mobile apps is now around 40 seconds “and trending upward.”

In its current version, the bill threatens to “expel the remaining domestic mobile video game developers from Russia,” says Vasily Ovchinnikov, head of the Organization for the Development of the Video Game Industry. Last year, Mr. Ovchinnikov recalls, the video game market shrank by almost 50%, and current advertising regulation entails a fall in developers’ incomes again.

However, a number of Kommersant’s sources see the bill as a whole useful. “In mobile games, especially for children, there really is a problem with uncontrolled display of advertising, which may not be appropriate for the age of users,” notes Kommersant’s interlocutor at a major game publisher.

Yulia Yurasova, Nikita Korolev