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Penny Arcade: the ugly, profitable details about Xbox Live dashboard ads

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
If you pay for Hulu plus, you still get ads.

Also, you're fucking insane if you don't think Sony will eventually get in on this. They don't because they're not number one, but if they were? Why wouldn't they? Hell, it could help them get to number one.

Every console will eventually have this crap.
 

AppleBlade

Member
I think outside of Outraged from NeoGAF, nobody really cares about these adverts at all. If you ask the average Xbox 360 owner how annoyed they are by adverts, the response will probably be "what are you talking about?" in most cases. People don't care.

People here just want to be pissed at something and adverts are an easy target because you don't have to think too hard about it. Just hope that nobody mentions that magazine you just bought or that cinema ticket you paid for or the television service you subscribe to.
I am a high school teacher at a technology school so I am around a lot of gamers (mostly teenage boys) and I can tell you that they never complain about the ads but they do complain about paying for Gold and the fact that they can't use Netflix if they don't have Gold. Well how do Internet services company give their product away for free . . . with Advertising! Well Microsoft does that and they still want to charge. So in an indirect way I do think that Live's most criticized feature (the fact that it's a pay service) is indeed tied to advertising.
 

mboojigga

Member
Or you're somebody making the industry more appealing to newcomers, growing the audience and thinking long term rather than short.

I don't begrudge anybody trying to make an honest dollar through innovation, building a better mousetrap, etc. My problem with this article is that it just shows MS moving further and further from gaming, and thus further and further from my own interests.

11 years is thinking short term? Yet their subscriptions continue to increase because of choice. I just laugh everytime I hear someone claim that they are going further away from games. MS has a library of games since 2005. All these games are still of interest to consumers who just bought a 360 today. You all believe most consumers think like you here on the internets and will be quick to claim it is BS why this system continues to sale.

MS doesn't care about exclusives and now it is games or the type of games offered.
 

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
Jesus. I cancelled my subscription earlier this year. I won't be renewing, and won't be buying their next console.
 
Raise your hand if you don't pay attention to the ads and navigate quickly to where you're going in the Dashboard and the ads are just a blur?

*raises hand*

If I just sat there and stared at the ads for a while it would bother me, but I don't do that. I don't give a rats ass about the ads that are there. As soon as my xbox is on i'm where I want to be in seconds, which most of the time is right where they start you, with the option to play the game that's already in the system.
 

Jb

Member
That was a really well constructed and researched article, thanks for sharing. The current dashboard is a fucking ugly piece of trash, and part of the reason why I don't buy nearly as many XBLA games as I used to.
 
GAT DAMN, XBL is crazy profitable. No surprise they can't afford to buy up so much exclusive content. Sony must be ruing the day they didn't follow this strategy.

350k a day not counting the millions of subs and the money they make from avatar shite. O_O
 

Ein Bear

Member
The amount of ads on the 360 are the exact reason I stopped paying for Live, and rarely boot the system up anymore.

I know that all these companies are just in it for the money, etc, but Microsoft are so... blatant about it that I find it insulting as a consumer.
 

Esura

Banned
I think outside of Outraged from NeoGAF, nobody really cares about these adverts at all. If you ask the average Xbox 360 owner how annoyed they are by adverts, the response will probably be "what are you talking about?" in most cases. People don't care.

People here just want to be pissed at something and adverts are an easy target because you don't have to think too hard about it. Just hope that nobody mentions that magazine you just bought or that cinema ticket you paid for or the television service you subscribe to.

No, I assume most people are pissed off about it because,

A) Ads take up an abnormal amount of space now.

B) Anything that isn't ad related is very small.

C) Dashboard is cluttered with too much ads.

Also, finding anything on the marketplace to download is a mission in itself. For most of this generation I primarily used a PS3 and only played on a 360 off and on but I decided to borrow my mom's 360 so I can play Vesperia, Blue Dragon, and Deathsmiles last month or so and I did not like my time with this new dashboard thing whatsoever. I can definitely understand the complaints. There can be too much of anything you know, and there is definitely too many ads.
 

mboojigga

Member
If you pay for Hulu plus, you still get ads.

Also, you're fucking insane if you don't think Sony will eventually get in on this. They don't because they're not number one, but if they were? Why wouldn't they? Hell, it could help them get to number one.

Every console will eventually have this crap.

The reason Sony didn't charge for PSN is because one the system cost $600 and two it was too open. Gamers were not ready for the PsN of 2006 with a fee and the initial cost. Since Sony doesn't set standards on the open network like MS does with Live it would have been worse on Sony as far as comparisons go.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Then it would be the game fault that it's implemented? Don't know where you are going with this.

A future where Microsoft sells ad space on their 720 game discs. Much like sitting through trailers before getting to a movie, we'll be sitting through commercials for Doritos and Mountain Dew before playing our new game.
 

mxgt

Banned
Ads (even for paying members)
Charging for services that are free everywhere else and have no right to be paid for.
Buying timed exclusivity on games/DLC

Microsoft are basically pure evil, prove me wrong GAF!
 
I know, man. Defend a business for acting like a business and I get branded forever.

Years of trying to promote indie games made by guys alone in their bedrooms and NOTHING :lol

XBLIG was a great idea (only reason I re-bought an XBOX really) though I have my doubts the games as they are will carry into next gen (although hopefully for gods sake they have some sort of low barrier initiative).

Also,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfHzO4SzEoc&feature=youtu.be
PS3 boot up sequence, future note for people I guess.
 

sikkinixx

Member
If one were to just not have the system online, are there no ads? I would check but I'm too lazy atm. I don't play online much, if ever, so I couldn't care less if I'm not connected.
 
Every time one of these threads come up, and especially after the Metro dashboard launch, I feel guilty to be paying anything for online play.

But when push comes to shove, my friends are on Xbox Live and the games I like to play online are there, too. Every year, when that renewal comes up, I find some reason to track down a cheap voucher.

I like to think that Microsoft is increasing their ad space revenue potential to a point where they can take away the subscription as a megaton announcement one day. But unless people are willing to let their subscriptions expire and not play Halo 4 and CoDBLOPs2 online this year, I don't see it happening any time soon. Maybe next gen.
 
A future where Microsoft sells ad space on their 720 game discs. Much like sitting through trailers before getting to a movie, we'll be sitting through commercials for Doritos and Mountain Dew before playing our new game.

Like I said, write our names down, and we'll see what happens. Keep track of it, because this is important.
 

Danielsan

Member
But when push comes to shove, my friends are on Xbox Live and the games I like to play online are there, too. Every year, when that renewal comes up, I find some reason to track down a cheap voucher.
Well that's the brilliant part on their account. They've trapped millions of people in their paid ecosystem. Don't want to pay anymore? Fine, you don't get play with your friends anymore!
 

surly

Banned
Raise your hand if you don't pay attention to the ads and navigate quickly to where you're going in the Dashboard and the ads are just a blur?

*raises hand*
You're supposed to be outraged enough that you'll sell your 360, buy a PS3, play worse versions of games on an online system that sucks balls, but then tell anyone that doesn't do that that they're a corporate shill. How long have you been here man? There's a thread like this every other week. You should know this by now!
 
A future where Microsoft sells ad space on their 720 game discs. Much like sitting through trailers before getting to a movie, we'll be sitting through commercials for Doritos and Mountain Dew before playing our new game.

Sony already tried that this gen when they sold State Farm insurance ads on loading screens.

Ads (even for paying members)
Charging for services that are free everywhere else and have no right to be paid for.
Buying timed exclusivity on games/DLC

Microsoft are basically pure evil, prove me wrong GAF!

MS isn't the only company that pays for timed exclusivity on games. I expect this practice to continue from both Sony and MS next gen.
 

knitoe

Member
The amount of ads on the 360 are the exact reason I stopped paying for Live, and rarely boot the system up anymore.

I know that all these companies are just in it for the money, etc, but Microsoft are so... blatant about it that I find it insulting as a consumer.

I can understand not turning on the X360 for lack of games, but for ads? Really. I don't remember the last ad I saw on the X360 and I use it daily. Humans have a great ability to ignore and forget things they don't find interesting. Try using it once in awhile.

Should I also be mad at paying for cable TV and still getting bombarded by ads?
 
Sure it did.

I'm really not joking. It took me days to actually download the file. My internet is capped at 10GB a month but doesn't count between midnight and 8am, so the only time I can download files like that is past midnight. I had to keep pausing it every night to go to bed because it took so damn long. It was absurd.
 

TheOddOne

Member
A future where Microsoft sells ad space on their 720 game discs. Much like sitting through trailers before getting to a movie, we'll be sitting through commercials for Doritos and Mountain Dew before playing our new game.
Well, they have not done it with the ads now or have even implemented them in games. Even if they were to implement them, other companies would do the same.
 
Well that's the brilliant part on their account. They've trapped millions of people in their paid ecosystem. Don't want to pay anymore? Fine, you don't get play with your friends anymore!
Yep. They did indeed build a better mousetrap.

Problem is, we're the mice.
 

Jac_Solar

Member
You pay monthly for a subscription to Live, and Microsoft makes probably millions of dollars monthly on ads, but Microsoft Live members don't have an option to turn ads off?
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
I'd be happy to pay for XBL gold if it offered something of value

I'm ok with ads on the dashboard (it's a bit cluttered but not the end of the world)

The two things are not connected to each other.
 
I'd be happy to pay for XBL gold if it offered something of value

I'm ok with ads on the dashboard (it's a bit cluttered but not the end of the world)

The two things are not connected to each other.

Timed Exclusive DLC isn't something of value? Your money along with the money from ads is used for that exact purpose, to secure timed exclusive or exclusive DLC.

That money is also spent on funding new XBLA titles like Deadlight. Seems silly to ask for more added value at this point. Giving away games or offering a rental service is detrimental to the long term viability of their online marketplace.
 

Danielsan

Member
I can understand not turning on the X360 for lack of games, but for ads? Really. I don't remember the last ad I saw on the X360 and I use it daily. Humans have a great ability to ignore and forget things they don't find interesting. Try using it.

Should I also be mad at paying for cable TV and still getting bombarded by ads?
Cable TV pays for its shows via advertising. You pay a monthly fee for the service that allows you to watch television. It would be a more apt comparison if you paid for the Microsoft Xbox Live service, game development would be funded by ad money on said service and the resulting games would be free to play.
 

shira

Member
The search bar is nice finding exactly what you're looking for but obviously it doesn't help people discover new games. What a bullshit answer.



I'm thinking it will look like this but with the game you're playing in the middle instead:

idiocracy-tv.jpeg

Oh I hope GAF never becomes like this
 
Timed Exclusive DLC isn't something of value? Your money along with the money from ads is used for that exact purpose, to secure timed exclusive or exclusive DLC.
How in the world are timed exclusives valuable to a customer? The thought of paying a fee for the privilege is stunning.
 
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