Speedymanic
Banned
How is it detrimental to the health of the industry.
devs get more money, more promotion, etc.
Penny Arcade: the ugly, profitable details about Xbox Live dashboard ads
- Thread starter Sean
- Start date
How is it detrimental to the health of the industry.
devs get more money, more promotion, etc.
Speedymanic
Banned
The ads doesn't really bother me at all tbh. I still don't like the idea of paying for this service when I can get it free elsewhere. I do enjoy Xbox Live's interface and ease of use so I guess that's what I'm paying for. I have decided however to skip the next Xbox in favor of the Wii u and PS4. I hope Sony decides to keep their current online model as I believe PS + offers me more value for my dollar.
Uh, not the same at all
It's more like if you owned the bus and were being forced to pay to access it anyways, and had to look at ads all the while
The bigger concern is that you're being sold to advertisers, regardless of your membership status. The revenue MS earns from these sales is more than enough to generate profit as well as negate the fee for XBL.
Has MS recovered from their original losses for the OG Xbox?
Timed exclusives, exclusive DLC, etc, is not good. Especially for indie devs.
Speedymanic
Banned
I own the internet connection that somehow MS charges me to use to play p2p online, yes
Keep digging
There's no ads in your games library section on 360 either, let's keep it a fair 1:1 comparison:
(If the argument is that it's harder to navigate to your library on XBL than Steam, I agree there).
So right, remember when Xbox early adopters got a free pad and 2 games for buying the Xbox and halo when they slashed the price ?
Lolstagia.
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Brace yourselves, gals and gents: this only gets bigger next gen!
toythatkills
Member
One day our parents will sit in a big comfy chair, and our children will sit down around them. The children will listen intently as our parents tell them of a wonderful time, forever lost to history. "There was a time, once, when we could express our opinions without risk of lazily being labelled fanboys," they will say. "People used to listen and respect one another's opinions and if they had an issue they would address it instead of making pathetic attempts at belittling you in order to suggest your opinion wasn't valid."
When we are grandparents, we will not have such stories.
When we are grandparents, we will not have such stories.
...what?
CoffeeJanitor
Member
I pay my ISP for a service I didn't previously have.
MS charges me to use a service I already have and have already paid for.
Small difference, no? The diehard console loyalist tactic to go into absurdities (dur just disconnect) when they can't win an argument doesn't come across too well, by the way.
Speedymanic
Banned
Quadraphonic
Member
You're cute. Devs getting more money? Hah. This money isn't going to devs.
NullPointer
Member
That's what I see when I start steam, so the real 1:1 would be both start screens. Steam does have a pop-under ad but you can disable it.
AdventureRacing
Member
Considering this plus live subs plus the fact that MS never drops the price on the 360 (it seems to go up if anything :/), they must be rolling in money right now. Paying for live and getting ads is just one of the things that pushed me from live to PC gaming.
Uno Venova
Banned
Even this site? *Twirls mustache*
You get the ads either way. That protest does nothing.
What medium, other than books, isn't full of ads, even if you pay for it? Very few I estimate. Cable channels? you're paying TWICE for no ads, basic cable costs plus speciality channel prices. Movies? There are trailers and ads.
It's amazing that you guys are complaining about ads dash, but not in the games, which had a baby protest compared to the dashboard freakouts that happen ever 3 months. It's like people are complaining about ads in the hallway to the theatre but not the ads in the movies themselves. What's going on is just a community upset that a hard-to-advertise-to demographic of the market has been cracked, and you were here to witness it.
Expect Sony and Nintendo to follow if they want to survive hard times.
BruiserBear
Banned
This isn't a debate about wanting to use Xbox Live. I want to use Xbox Live, and I have for years now.
This is just a debate about how Microsoft handles it's console dashboard. You've got one group who thinks Microsoft are tasteless fools who can't help themselves from squeezing every penny out of every crevice they can think of, and another group who seems to think anything they want to do is completely fine.
The problem is that some people take this personal, like criticisms of Xbox Live upset them, because they think these people are just shitting on the console they like the most. That is most certainly not the case for most of us. I like the 360 a lot, but I just wish Microsoft weren't such greedy fuckers.
Onion_Relish
Member
So Microsoft gets all the money from subs AND tens of millions from ads? That is some evil genius shit right there. I have to tip my cap to that.
What I see here is a guy in front of a mountain, yelling about it's shadow.
Your life is going to be very frustrating dude. Ads are part of human nature and history. You're influenced by ads, as much as you consider it a 'bane' It's a method of human communication that's been around since ancient Egyptians used papyrus to hock their wares.
The advertising is just not intrusive enough for me to give a shit about this. It is not delaying my experience in any way on the console, and if I choose to pay attention to it, it tends to be something I am interested in such as a game/movie trailer, or some sort of contest that takes me 30 seconds to enter. None of which is big enough or over the top to the point that it causes me any heartache.
Right now there is a Sea Fishing game being advertised at the top of my screen while I am posting this. I only notice the ad because I am posting in a thread about advertising. Of course I am not paying to visit this site, but the fact that such an ad is causing me zero pain is relevant.
Right now there is a Sea Fishing game being advertised at the top of my screen while I am posting this. I only notice the ad because I am posting in a thread about advertising. Of course I am not paying to visit this site, but the fact that such an ad is causing me zero pain is relevant.
I hope you are joking. You would not block the ads on Neogaf would you?
He has to, ads are the bane of everything. They can't possible help in any way.
Speedymanic
Banned
Dude, not cool. Hey, buddy...don't answer.
Majima Everywhere System
Member
It is a free service called silver. You upset about 48 hour codes in boxes? Is the service diminished when people pay half the MSRP for a year of gold?
toythatkills
Member
I don't think anyone here thinks whatever Microsoft does is completely fine. There are lines, but personally I just don't think they're anywhere near crossing them on this particular matter. It's a couple of adverts on a TV screen that you'll hardly even notice anyway unless you're going out of your way to notice them. The amount of 10+ page threads this generates is completely absurd.
People are acting as if this is some massive affront to their human rights, well in actual fact it's just a small picture of a packet of crisps.
Speedymanic
Banned
What crisps? Hula hoops? Oh man, amazing crisps.
now i want hula hoops. Thanks a lot, shill. :/
now i want hula hoops. Thanks a lot, shill. :/
What really kills me isn't how huge this has gotten, but the amount of leeway consumers are letting Microsoft have.
Remember the original X-Box live and how people were pissed they had to pay 5 dollars a month to play P2P when PCs did it for free? Then, they split accounts into silver and gold, gold being paying. Gold being the one that gets demos and the ability to use the console to access other subscription services that they already pay for. That also have adds both in them and in the user interface. That's required to use the online portion of games, even though it's P2P and dedicated servers? Remember when it went up from 5 to 6 dollars and every was like "it's just another dollar?!?!?"
It's really scummy. Yes, it's their right. Yes, they can do whatever they want. Doesn't change the fact that you have a service you have to pay for if you want to use your games to full potential that has advertisements as part of the interface and as part of some pay for subscription services. And they had the gall to raise the monthly rate.
Remember the original X-Box live and how people were pissed they had to pay 5 dollars a month to play P2P when PCs did it for free? Then, they split accounts into silver and gold, gold being paying. Gold being the one that gets demos and the ability to use the console to access other subscription services that they already pay for. That also have adds both in them and in the user interface. That's required to use the online portion of games, even though it's P2P and dedicated servers? Remember when it went up from 5 to 6 dollars and every was like "it's just another dollar?!?!?"
It's really scummy. Yes, it's their right. Yes, they can do whatever they want. Doesn't change the fact that you have a service you have to pay for if you want to use your games to full potential that has advertisements as part of the interface and as part of some pay for subscription services. And they had the gall to raise the monthly rate.
AcceptableGhost
Member
No the problem with your post was that corporations don't need defending, ever. Microsoft, Sony, Valve are none-human entities. Saying "lol corporations are there to make money" is dumb because ultimately consumers are there to get the best experience for the lowest amount of money (they have opposing goals). "Corporations are there to make money" is probably one of the laziest and and kind of strange (parasites are there to get blood too) posts you can find on the internet.
Pretty soon, MS will require mandatory product placements on all its games. Achievement unlocked.
And they still charge people for access Netflix which is already paid for. You might not notice the ads, but if they are making money from ads, then let the Netflix access be free.
toythatkills
Member
It's a perfectly legitimate point when everyone seems to think they should be behaving as a charity. Of course it would be lovely if they gave everything out for free and sent me a bouquet of flowers every month for being a lovely customer, but that's not how businesses make money. It was just a reminder, rather than a defence.
Microsoft saw the potential in a second revenue stream on their console which is completely independent of anything else, gold, silver, the price of fish, completely independent. This second revenue stream doesn't really adversely affect any sane person, and so being a business, they decided to go for it. It makes them money and it doesn't do any harm. If that makes them evil, whatever, they're evil, but making money is their entire purpose and they made the decision most successful businesses would make.
The only people bothered by adverts are the people who really want to be bothered by adverts. It takes a million times more effort to be pissed off at them than it does to just ignore them.
Speedymanic
Banned
Don't call people who prefer xbl idiots.
Secondly, there are more revenue streams. Avatar fluff and the selling of usage data, habits, etc to marketing companies.
I'm currently playing Dirt 3, ads everywhere.
And yet to get an achievement for that either.. which sucks.
Jake Tower
Banned
I don't have a problem with the ads. I have never had a problem with ads on anything except television. But that's what a DVR is for.
I have a problem with ads ruining the layout of the dashboard though. The only reason why my "My Games" tab isn't on the home page is because of ads. The reason why I have to navigate through several different tabs to see the new releases of XBLA is because of ads. And the reason why I cant customize my home page.
Imagine ads being only displayed on the middle box, and every other space was used to make the interface less cumbersome. It would make finding content I care about easier and it would make the user experience better.
I don't think people are mad that they are being advertised to, its that Microsoft is designing the UI to maximize on ad dollars and, in turn, making the user experience worse.
toythatkills
Member
And the comedy award goes to...
Aww, you didn't win. There's always next year though. Keep your chin up, kid.
No, people are genuinely mad they're being advertised to. That's why the complaints are mainly about how they still have to pay for Gold.
When it took Sony a month to bring back PSN do you think that was just bad luck, or a underfunded, poorly designed and unsecured system? Xbox live is rock solid, easy for developers to use, and easy for customers to use. That's why it's worth it. People expect a level of service that is not necessarily expected for PSN, which still has maintenances that last 1/2 a day every few months.