Regular readers will know that I've never been a fan of sticking with ad-supported applications and games - surely it's far better to pay the developers the necessary dollar or two with an in-app-purchase, reward them for their hard work, and also zap the ads and gain a better experience? Regardless, many users do carry on using apps and games with ads showing and up until now the developers get a very small reward for that appearance through the 'Microsoft UWP Ad Monetization Platform'. It has now been announced that this will be shut down in June - see the quote below.

From Microsoft:

As of June 1st 2020, the Microsoft Ad Monetization platform for Windows UWP apps will be shut down. This decision was made primarily because it is no longer viable for us to continue operating the product at the current levels.

Key points to note

• The Ad monetization service will continue to run through the shutdown date of June 1, 2020. Certain underperforming Ad networks will be shut down between now and June 1, 2020.
• Developer earnings through the platform prior to the shutdown date (i.e. May 31, 2020) will be paid out per the regular payout schedule.
• Historical data including Ad performance data will be made available for download till June 8. All Ad Monetization web pages such as the ad unit configuration, analytics pages will be taken down post this date. 

While this transition may be painful for developers who rely on the Ad Monetization platform today, we want to provide adequate time to make the transition to another ad platform. Our recommendation is to begin initiating a switch over immediately by evaluating alternate options for ad monetization for your Windows apps.

As Microsoft intimates, there are other ad platforms that developers can integrate and they have six months to implement this. Which seems fair enough, though as MSPowerUser points out, many ad platforms lack the SDKs for Windows 10 UWP apps, so monetising apps through ads after June could be tricky.

Comments welcome - do you live with ad-strewn apps or games or do you live with the adverts? I do realise that some titles don't offer a purchase to remove ads - and these will be the main losers after June, I suspect.