I have never seen anything like this in a $60 video games. I think it's worth discussing where exactly in-game monetization is heading. I see predatory monetization particularly a problem in sports games like NBA and FIFA. I would say games like NBA and FIFA are marketed to "none typical core gamer" audience. And compared to other genres they do seem to be trying to pull off more, acting as sort of a test-bed before these elements are introduced over to the more core games audience. We saw this with Star Wars Battlefront 2 and it didn't turn out so well.

These I think games are often used to play-test what these companies want to do so this NBA ad is deeply concerning.

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Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj2flC2cEak

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this is the ad that plays in NBA 2K19 during loading screens. The idea is that since the user spends close to a minute looking at a loading screen why not use the loading screens as ad space? Regardless of how fast you load the ad is unskippable. What if you're using an SSD on PC? NVMe or whatever is the fastest. It doesn't matter cz the ad remains on your screen. Serving such ads in mobile games is somewhat acceptable because the game is practically free to play. But now we are reaching a point where full priced $60 games could end up using unskippable ads.

The ad in question is for a FOX series called "Snowfall" which is a crime drama. It is ironic that the first thing we hear in the ad is "don't be greedy."

Are lines between freemium and paid no longer exist? How far can the publisher push the boundary? This is extremely disappointing.