Microsoft looking to add advertisements to free-to-play games:
Microsoft is creating a program that would enable companies and various advertisers to advertise in free-to-play Xbox games, according to Business Insider. Ads could appear in these games as digital-rendered billboards in car-racing games, the outlet added, citing sources close to the matter.
The company is considering creation of a private marketplace, where only select brands would be able to buy ad space and display ads in ways that don’t disrupt gameplay. The goal is to avoid an outcry from gamers.
"We are always looking for ways to improve the experience for players and developers but we don't have anything further to share," a Microsoft spokesperson told TheStreet. The spokesperson didn't dispute the report.
[...] According to Business Insider, Microsoft has no intention of taking a cut. The company plans to let developers and ad-tech companies share this advertising revenue.
In this case, why would Microsoft take such a risk of alienating certain players? One possibility is that Microsoft, which aims to buy out Activision Blizzard, wants to attract developers by offering them additional sources of income.
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(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday April 20 2022, @04:28PM (2 children)
So, not much of an intelligent source, really: of course they intend on taking a cut....just not until it is successful and generating lots of income.
Right.... and we have no intention of taking a cut in this 'improved' experience.
Because users have shown MS that they are willing to take ANYTHING up the arse to keep using an inferior OS and 'experience'... duhhh....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2022, @04:58PM
This seems extremely limited in scope with no downside for Microsoft. No "risk" found.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Thursday April 21 2022, @07:29AM
Unfortunately, the same can be largely said of the majority of Nintendo, Playstation, Apple, and even Linux fans. Speaking as a full-time Linux user of 14 years who favors Playstation consoles (but also owns a Nintendo 3DS & Xbox One), I don't see nearly the same level of loyalty among the MS/Xbox users that I've seen among the Nintendo, PS, or Apple crowd. Most of them seem to fall into the "I'll use whatever lets me play cool games" category; MS is the easiest, cheapest option, so they go with that.
In fact, as a sidenote, Sony just announced that they'll be experimenting by placing ads in free-to-play PS4 & PS5 games [pushsquare.com]. They know most PS4/PS5 owners will shrug it off because they either don't play free-to-play games, assume the ads won't expand to paid games, and/or figure it won't be obtrusive enough to matter.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Wednesday April 20 2022, @04:29PM (2 children)
they'd do everything they can to keep ads out of their ecosystem. Or at least make them opt-in.
I just passed a drug test. My dealer has some explaining to do.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday April 20 2022, @08:30PM
Because junk food feeds neither you nor the bacteria that would otherwise compete with you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @05:44AM
they're such innovative little beavers, thinking of clever ideas - such as putting more adverts on things. it's truly peak MBA when our ideas are the dietary equivalent of "add sugar - no, more sugar. now that's fucking Frappichino". how clever and worthy of bonuses.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by acid andy on Wednesday April 20 2022, @04:49PM (2 children)
This could be OK, on one condition. I have to be able to crash into these billboards with my racing car so that they fly off spectacularly, ideally breaking into splinters, and end up unrecognizable and preferably out of sight.
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 2) by boltronics on Thursday April 21 2022, @07:08AM (1 child)
In game advertising has been a thing for Microsoft since the original Xbox. Remember Need for Speed: Underground? That had those McDonalds fries ads in it, and they were up above the race course so you would drive underneath - no possibility of crashing into them unfortunately.
The only difference is that those were baked into the game, so even today your offline OG Xbox will show that advert in the game (I know this because I played it just a few days ago). However in future, those adverts may not show up at all (or have some generic placeholder image) once the servers are no longer available, so it's probably a win in some respects.
Then again, many modern games won't work at all when servers go offline and day 1 patches are no longer available to download, so maybe not.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 2) by boltronics on Thursday April 21 2022, @07:15AM
(free to play games are almost always entirely online anyway, but I'd be surprised if they didn't eventually expand this to all games if successful)
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2022, @06:13PM
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/20/advertising-in-the-future [penny-arcade.com]
They're futurologists.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2022, @06:19PM (7 children)
Alienating my ass - they are playing them for free, what do they care if background billboards show ads?
(Score: 3, Troll) by DannyB on Wednesday April 20 2022, @06:49PM (6 children)
Ads must be intrusive and attention distracting. If they are not, then those ads fail to serve their masters' porpoises.
If you don't mentally get interrupted, stop and comprehend the ad, then you aren't getting influenced by the ad. Ads that don't influence people would be like, oh, say, an operating system that didn't work and had a strange concept of drive letters.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2022, @07:05PM (2 children)
Ads *could* be subliminal. Work them into the game.
e.g. A car racing game where the barrier signage displays ads like it does at an actual race track. A Spiderman game where the walls of buildings are covered in ads. Blade Runner where it's basically wall to wall ads plus a bit of Ryan Gosling eye candy. A football game where the pitch has ads covering the grass. A card game with the backs of cards.
Basically anything that uses a 3D API for background texturing could show in-game ads.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 20 2022, @07:44PM (1 child)
My understanding of subliminal is that it is below the threshold of conscious perception. This differs by having ads that are clearly visible as they would appear wood in ordinary life.
For maximum effectiveness, ads need to be highly personalized so the viewer of the ad sees the particular products and eye candy that they are most likely to react to based on extensive collection of highly personal information.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Wednesday April 20 2022, @08:45PM
Yes and that's most likely what these companies will do. The problem with this is that it will be highly distracting and jarring. When you watch a real football game or car race, you get used to seeing certain kinds of ad, based on the sponsors and the demographic that are interested in the particular sport. If instead of an ad for motor oil your eye catches one for the garden rake you just bought on Amazon, it's going to be a huge distraction that pulls you out of the game and highly annoying. Great for the advertisers as they want to steal your attention, but bad for the gamers and probably bad for the publishers as the games will get unpopular.
In the age of deep fakes it makes me wonder if they'll start texturing ads specific to each viewer into the billboards on a live sports broadcast, maybe even onto the player's clothing in place of their own sponsors. Man, that would be creepy!
Master of the science of the art of the science of art.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday April 20 2022, @08:33PM (2 children)
Ads that you don't notice consciously affect you unconsciously.
The ads you notice consciously you can intentionally dismiss.
The ones you don't notice go straight in to affect your prejudices.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2022, @08:53PM (1 child)
So to rid the world of prejudice we should first get rid of ads?
(Score: 5, Touché) by Freeman on Wednesday April 20 2022, @09:53PM
I'm willing to try it.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday April 20 2022, @06:20PM (1 child)
This could be an interesting thing, but you know it will be abused and/or awful. In the event that you won't put it in your premium package. You're just monetizing the freeloaders.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @02:31PM
If it turns out to be deemed "successful," or at least not awful, it will find its way into the premium package somehow.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2022, @04:10PM (1 child)
Trackmania did this with billboard ads, and personally I thought it increased the fun of the game. I don't see a downside to this if they are placed in a game-appropriate way.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday April 22 2022, @01:13PM
I do get that it can be done well and tactfully. This is Microsoft we're talking about, though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"