Depending on what point in each game the advertisement is shown, I wonder if players of this sort of game find ads more forgivable because they lend an authentic feel of a real basketball game. Play enough bombastic Jock Jams during a game's halftime and then hit them with an ad for Ford trucks, "today's game sponsor", and a fan of basketball might actually enjoy the treatment of a game being made to feel more like the real experience. <br>I've usually forgiven ads in sports games because there are the players who actually like the way it feels more real, but it gets overboard for me when the player is forced to wait and it drags the length of a single game out to an intolerable length. It might also bother me much worse if I knew there was only one ad at a time and I was going to have to watch it over and over. This is the sort of thing I think I'd need to see an actual player of the game describe because it might actually not be nearly as bad of an experience to a basketball fan as it sounds to people like us who never play the game and only know it has in game ads that feel unusually prevalent. <br>Hopefully they're still smart enough to know this sort of thing feels appropriate in sports, but we'd riot if between missions of The Witcher you had to watch an ad for the latest Avengers. There's nothing authentic feeling about that, so the excuse goes right out the window.<br>I do think you're right on the money though, about your final thought that this is exploratory behavior for dealing with removing loot boxes. Real life sports games have sponsors and these companies are constantly shouted out during games as "bringing you the half time show", or what have you. There's no reason a game wouldn't look to emulate that more, and even excuse it as I have as even being "authentic". The question is, will they handle it professionally and make it an enjoyable part of the show, or will it feel like torture because game developers don't understand showmanship like real sports providers do. Real cheerleaders can sell me McDonalds a lot easier than a freeze in the action and a sterilized ad break.