Xbox One Designed "With Advertising in Mind"

[Gunner 51]

God damnit Microsoft. Every time someone is worried about a certain problem of your stupid box, you either don't give them an straight answer, or you tell them that it's somehow a 'feature', that they're being stupid and that they should 'deal with it'.

First you tried to convince us that your always online function wasn't actually DRM, and that it was to 'create constant worlds' and to enable that 'cloud processing' nonsense, which we all knew never worked for SimCity or Diablo 3, because some people don't want to get dicked around by a lousy internet connection when they're playing Single Player.

Then you told us that you were getting rid of our ownership rights, again for the sake of the 'cloud'. We all knew that you were just sore that people were sharing or lending their games without asking you permission and paying a fucking fee for the privilege.

Then you told us all that we were just idiots who needed to be 'educated' so we would understand how lovely and awesome the 'experience' would be, because you were constantly using that wonderful PR word over and over again without giving us any hard details to work with, even AFTER you said we 'just didn't understand', even when you told us you were banking on the fact that people wouldn't do their homework and just buy the console like mindless sheep.

And now you not only tell us that the aggressive advertisements that plagued the Xbox 360's dashboard are back but are bloody 'central to the experience', but that the Kinect will be listening to what we're saying, and selling that information to other corporations... and you try to sell that as a fucking FEATURE?! Fucking ADVERTISEMENTS?! For the love of God, the Kinect constantly watching people was the ONE thing that was creeping people out about the Xbone, and you expect us to actually believe you, not only that it's a fucking feature, but that you won't abuse the information it gets? Do you really think people want to pay a Premium of $500, plus a subscription, to be spied on and bombarded by advertisements? Have you forgotten about the NSA scandal that you were in? What's stopping you from giving hours upon hours of recordings to the government due to a secret court order?

And here we were, mocking all the conspiracy theorists for thinking you'd be stupid enough to pull this nonsense, while you were planning to announce it as a goddamn selling point. Well fucking done. Apparently you didn't realize that 1984 was a warning, not a blueprint.

You sir, have delivered a damned fine response to Microsoft in this post.
Don't get me wrong, I do like Microsoft - but their arrogance in the last ten years has been completely baffling and rather ill-founded.

But one thing that you did forget to mention is that if you are in the business of creating a games console - playing games and pleasing those who play games is not just your first priority, it is your ONLY priority. In thier folly Microsoft's arrogance has made them forget this wonderful maxim and they are creating something for shareholders and advertisers rather than the gamer.

I don't know about all this NSA stuff, and it's something I'd have to look into - but if the crackpot conspiracy theorists are right, I can see the next console offering from Microsoft shall be going down the tubes faster than Mario going after Princess Peach.

 

[Signa]

I wonder if there is any embarrassment that MS won't stoop to for the sake of money. I'm starting to wonder if they'd let Sony to targeted advertizing on their dashboard if they paid enough.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Ok I had heard rumors about this from a long time ago, but I didn't make the connection until now.

Is it bad that I now want this console to fail miserably?

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

A 'Damn Fine Response' to Microsoft

You sir, have delivered a damned fine response to Microsoft in this post.
Don't get me wrong, I do like Microsoft - but their arrogance in the last ten years has been completely baffling and rather ill-founded.

But one thing that you did forget to mention is that if you are in the business of creating a games console - playing games and pleasing those who play games is not just your first priority, it is your ONLY priority. In thier folly Microsoft's arrogance has made them forget this wonderful maxim and they are creating something for shareholders and advertisers rather than the gamer.

I don't know about all this NSA stuff, and it's something I'd have to look into - but if the crackpot conspiracy theorists are right, I can see the next console offering from Microsoft shall be going down the tubes faster than Mario going after Princess Peach.

There's nothing worse than being laughed at by men in tin-foil hats screaming 'We told you so! We totally called it, and you didn't listen! Who's crazy now, bitches?!', and knowing that they're right.

That's also a good point about how pleasing your customers should be your first, last and only priority. That said, Nintendo seems to be on the other end of the scale: Right now they're being lambasted for not having enough games for the Wii U, and some of the most popular developers and publishers aren't keen on making more (like EA, who got mad that Nintendo wouldn't implement Origin onto their console, then changed their mind when the Xbone's nastier side started to show), to the point where they've more or less been forgotten (the number of people acting like Sony is going to be the only one profiting massively from the Xbone fiasco is staggering).

I have to say, I was looking forward to the Kinect 2.0 pleasantly surprising me, as I've always seen the Kinect 1.0 as a waste of a LOT of potential. It's an undeniably great idea, hampered by a low response rate (90 ms, if I'm not wrong), unreliable control and an extremely small play area, despite claiming to be able to support multiple people. Now though, the fact that it's going to be watching me, even when I'm not making a fool of myself kicking virtual balls, and selling that info to advertisers, while daddy Microsoft is saying "We're doing this with the customer in mind!"... Now that's a TRUE waste of potential, transforming genuinely innovative technology into invasive marketing bullshit.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Ok I had heard rumors about this from a long time ago, but I didn't make the connection until now.

Is it bad that I now want this console to fail miserably?

I'm terrified that it won't.

I'm in a few ongoing debates about Microsoft and Xbone on this forum. I'm no longer entertaining those debates. With the ammo MS is handing me on an almost daily basis, the arguments are either self-explanatory or culled down to irrational (possibly paid?) MS apologists.

This is shaping up to be an invasive, restrictive product from a shady, insulting company, and *no one* should buy it. But people will. Sigh.

 

[Freyar]

That's also a good point about how pleasing your customers should be your first, last and only priority.

Users/consumers aren't the customers.

 

[Wargamer]

I have a theory on how the Xbone dashboard will look now...

 

[Vegosiux]

I will have it known on record, that the ads I want are "none", and that the number of ads I want is "zero".

"We're making an obnoxious practice more seamless and make it appear as less of an inconvenience" is not a strong selling point with me.

 

[Wargamer]

Why would I want ads to be "part of the experience." They can go screw themselves, Xbox 360 was bad, but tolerable, that said, my PS3 never annoyed me at all with ads, so I hope the PS4 sticks to the same idea.

Mine did at one point. Wipeout HD had ads installed in the loading screen for a time. Not a bad idea when you think about it - the game's loading, so it's not like you've got anything else to do.

But there was a backlash. Loading times mysteriously increased, likely for the benefit of the advertisers, and people were quite vocal about their disapproval.

There are no ads on the loading screens now. It was a stupid move and Sony cottoned on to the fact that players were getting angry at having their load times doubled.

If Wipeout HD were an Xbox exclusive, I guarantee there would not have been this kind of backpedalling

 

[Freyar]

There is NO legitimate reason to have advertising in a retail game (excepting for sports titles where they work for the scene). If you're going to put advertising in it, the game must be free, completely. Advertising was unacceptable in Wipeout HD (especially as they were added after the fact), loading screen or not.

 

[Wargamer]

There is NO legitimate reason to have advertising in a retail game (excepting for sports titles where they work for the scene). If you're going to put advertising in it, the game must be free, completely. Advertising was unacceptable in Wipeout HD (especially as they were added after the fact), loading screen or not.

So Psygnosis should have given Wipeout 2097 away for free because pretty much every track had a Red Bull banner plastered in plain sight? Should Syndicate Wars have been free because half the trucks and billboards had the 2000AD logo?

Don't be silly. You can have advertising in a paid for product, it's just got to be sane and sensible. The problem - and this is the reason AdBlocker software is so damn popular as well in my opinion - is when the adverts clash and interfere with the experience. When I'm screaming around a near-future racetrack I can believe that there would really be a Red Bull billboard there. Syndicate Wars was practically the kind of world that 2000AD's Judge Dredd lived in, but I can see dystopian-future people still wanting to read comics.

But an advert for ESPN that doubles my loading time? That doesn't gel at all.

 

[kklawm]

So what happens if I just keep screaming "Fuck Ads" at my hypothetical Xbox periodically.

An Xbox One exclusive ad block ad pops up. Only $5 a month! Blocks all ads! (maybe...)

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Thank you, Microsoft. A week ago, the topic came up suggesting that you could use the Kinect for spying on gamers. I said that while the possibility was there, you wouldn't be foolish enough to do it, with the PR nightmare getting caught doing so would entail. Now this. I sincerely thank you for showing how naive I was. You've hit rock bottom, tossed a rope to climb out, then shrugged and pulled out a jackhammer.

Sincerely, A 360-to-PS4 adopter

 

[faefrost]

I hate to say I told you so... but it was disturbingly clear from the very beginning that we were never intended to be the customer or consumers for the Xbox One. We are, and were from the initial design phase, the product to be sold. We just get to pay an obscene amount of money for the privilege of being the product.

 

[Ham Blitz]

You know, I just now re read this and I realize something after seeing this quote again specifically.
"With the new Xbox One, the technology and Kinect has improved a lot, so that actually the voice recognition, the way you speak to your Xbox and the transition between gaming and watching TV is a lot smoother, and hopefully we can transpire that into advertising that we do."

In the sentence, he mentions how the voice recognition and the transfers between tv and gaming are a lot smoother and then says hopefully they can transpire that into advertising. Reading all that makes it sound like they just want to make advertising function smoother, and appears to actually say nothing about the Kinect listening in on you to target you with specific ads.

 

[FalloutJack]

(Above video embedded in lieu of a "HERE WE GO AGAIN!" statement.)

Is there a doctor in the house?

 

[Vivi22]

Seriously, we pay 500 dollars and pay for Xbox Live and you're STILL charging us out the asshole. This cannot end well.

This bears repeating.

You want to charge me half a G, 60 dollars a game, AND CHARGE ME FOR ONLINE PLAY, then, ontop of it all, you want to put advertisements on my console AND spy on me to try to target those ads better?

Fucking seriously?

This bears as much repeating as humanly possible. I've found it utterly pathetic for years that the dashboard is really more of an interactive personal billboard, especially when some people are paying for Xbox Live. Paying customers shouldn't be treated to ads every time they start up their console. I'm not buying a console so people can advertise to me.

It's one thing if I go into your online store or something, but if all I'm doing is starting up a new game and the first thing I see are advertisements, you can go fuck yourself because you missed the point of a console. Microsoft really doesn't care about their customers. They aren't interested in respecting them or treating them as people. They're simply a resource to be exploited in every way and on every level possible so they can get some more coin.

 

[aelreth]

I haven't turned on my 360 in over a year, do they have adverts in-game during transitions yet?

I suddenly have a thought that one of MS's spies will see this and at it as a feature.

 

[Caffiene]

"Xbox, launch CoD: Ghosts"

"WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADOPT A PUPPY FROM YOUR NEAREST ANIMAL SHELTER? POGO IS JUST LOOKING FOR A LOVELY HOME!"

I dont want ads... but I would totally buy a Xbox that had Puppies Near You functionality.

 

[Gormech]

All I can imagine is it going the way of Youtube.

Start up matchmaking.
Automatically sent into a lobby.
Loading ...
ADVERTIZEMENT VIDEO WHILE EVERYONE ENTERS INTO THE GAME.
Match starts with half of your team still watching a video.
You get slaughtered.

Rinse and repeat.