Eurogamer: Microsoft defends NUads (Kinect enabled ads on Xbox dashboard)
- Thread starter Neuromancer
- Start date
Phonomezer
Banned
Zeliard said:
Yeah but that is the point: they AREN'T critical features.
You can just use your own USB drives if you don't want to shell out for an official HDD, how is that "anti-consumer" in the slightest?
DangerousDave
Member
So... XBL is the only online gaming service that you have to pay and is the only online gaming service that include ads and the only online gaming service that you have to call by phone (at least in europe) to cancel it?
Ridiculous and one sided.Snuggler said:
1. The core functionalities are not littered with ads. Do you see ads when you go to your group chat? When you go to the friendslist? No, when your gaming you don't see an ad. How much time do you look at ads right now? Don't you go directly to start the game?
2. Yeah, I have no idea where the fuck you got that impression.
Thunderbear
Mawio Gawaxy iz da Wheeson hee pways games
Why aren't more people upset that they have to pay $60 a year and still see ads to begin with? At least the "ads" (they barely can be called that) on PSN are for PSN movies/games only, and they only show up when you are over the Store icon. There's one sponsored content section as well but it contains actual entertainment content.
Another reason why I my PS3 is my main media entertainment system. I go to my Xbox for games like Gears of War and multi-platform games that are clearly superior on the Xbox. And if they are on PC I always go for the PC version. But having to deal with the cluttered ads on Xbox on a daily basis, I'd hate that. Especially since already paying $60 a year. But most people seem to gobble it up without caring.
So this is another stab in the back that I am sure people will just get used to on the Xbox. I am sure people would get used to ads on PSN too after initial whining, but I really hope that doesn't happen.
Another reason why I my PS3 is my main media entertainment system. I go to my Xbox for games like Gears of War and multi-platform games that are clearly superior on the Xbox. And if they are on PC I always go for the PC version. But having to deal with the cluttered ads on Xbox on a daily basis, I'd hate that. Especially since already paying $60 a year. But most people seem to gobble it up without caring.
So this is another stab in the back that I am sure people will just get used to on the Xbox. I am sure people would get used to ads on PSN too after initial whining, but I really hope that doesn't happen.
Phonomezer
Banned
Thunderbear said:
You make it sound like you have to jump through magical hoops and a 20 minute infomercial presentation just to play a game.
StudioTan
Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
Y2Kev said:
It's not so much a defense as a "it's really not going to affect my life so why get so upset about it?" thing.
Seriously, the ads are not obtrusive as they are and I never notice them. For you to extrapolate that to mean that the same people would be the just as accepting if they were forced to watch a video before playing games is unfair.
I certainly complained bitterly that Blu-rays would show much ads and trailers before I got to the damned main menu to watch a movie. THAT was annoying.
The point is the new Kinect integration won't really change anything we have now.
What do you mean by "deal with" them? What do you have to actually do to deal with them?Thunderbear said:
I don't have my 360 set to boot the game that's in the drive (although you can do that), but when I turn it on I push up once on an analogue stick and I'm in the My Xbox section. That's how I deal with it.
That said, I look at the Spotlight section a lot because it advertises new games, has trailers for upcoming games, and also has a tile that lists the deal of the week and other discounted content. Those ads are relevant and useful to me. I don't want to interact with them though.
But those are still ads. And there has been Subway, Toyota (Prius), Amazon just this year on PS3.Thunderbear said:
Right now on Xbox Live, they're advertising (as actual ads) Gatling Gears, Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition and Lucha Fury; on top of the usual games/stuff they show (Black Ops Annihilation, Mortal Kombat Season Pass, Sonic 20th Anniversary, recently reduced games, Deal of the week, latest news, Spotlight, etc.); yet there's more focus on the only 6 (non-game related) ads that are there right now:
-T-Mobile
-US ARMY
-Jack Link's Beef Jerky
-Windows Phone
-Toyota
-Hyundai
Which alternate between those 6 and others like Bing, MSN, etc.; than on the game/music/movies-related ones; which there are way more.
You can install them. Granted the only limit is their 16GB limit; but I had no problems playing Banjo and Viva Pinata and still having around 4GB free last year.alr1ghtstart said:
What you can't is play games like require a HDD (Like the Halos) or play Original Xbox games (because of the partition).
Phonomezer
Banned
alr1ghtstart said:
Are the people buying Arcade 360's the kind of people that will even realise that you can install games (also not a critical feature) onto the system? Probably not. I would assume most people interested in gaming would go for the model that comes with everything as standard.
I'm just saying they have everything you need to play games in the 4GB Arcade model. Anything else you decided to add to that is your own problem.
But of course, I do not agree with their pricing at all. The Wireless adapter was the most offensive.
CountAntonius
Member
Uh no. Valve made these decisions. They made steam. There is a correlation. You seem to have missed my point. It really didn't bother me cause none of them ruined my gaming experience same with xbla ads.Maleficence said:
Any way this will just keep going in circles forever so good debate.
statham
Member
tell me thats false so i can get back to my Prius gamefernoca said:There are usually more than that on PlayStation Home alone, but I guess since noone goes there; they don't notice.
Or some notice, but I guess a Sackboy driving a Toyota Prius and having it parked on the middle of the plaza is too cool or awesome for some.
BruiserBear
Banned
This all day long.The Faceless Master said:
fernoca said:There are usually more than that on PlayStation Home alone, but I guess since noone goes there; they don't notice.
Or some notice, but I guess a Sackboy driving a Toyota Prius and having it parked on the middle of the plaza is too cool or awesome for some.
Well, for the record, I think Home is equally disgusting.
Hehehe. was there some months ago. You could even play/download a Toyota sponsored/LittleBigPlanet mini-game to play in Home, about how awesome energy cars are.statham said:
Or the Subway/Sony thing, noone cared because they're were giving away free/new PS3 games and accesories, so "I have to go to the site every day to try to win that copy of inFamous 2"...fuck all those free footlong-entries, I want games!!.
Or the Slurpee/Sony deal "pfft..whatever, I'll continue buying slurpees at 7-11 just to go to their site and redeem them because I really want that Sackboy backpack or that Slurpee theme!!".
But I guess that since PSN is free, it's okay. Yet, the ones that pay for Playstation Plus have to go through the same..so I don't know.
Phonomezer said:
They force you to buy their own proprietary core HDDs if you want to add something approaching a decent amount of space. These hard drives are grossly overpriced at retail relative to their storage space, while also removing choice in product from the consumer.
Microsoft sets the bar so low and gets their base so complacent they get people like you to think that finally allowing 16GB capped USB externals in a late patch is somehow a benefit to the consumer. It's impressive. Like I said, they do this sort of thing because they get away with it. Won't get any better.
Uno Venova
Banned
Better all they way in Home than in front of the screen every time you power the consoles on, yaknow?fernoca said:There are usually more than that on PlayStation Home alone, but I guess since noone goes there; they don't notice.
Or some notice, but I guess a Sackboy driving a Toyota Prius and having it parked on the middle of the plaza is too cool or awesome for some.
One side only appears when you navigate and the other side is totally hidden. As others said, pretending that the ads are not there because you don't see them, doesn't change the fact that the ads are there.upJTboogie said:
But I also guess that driving a Toyota in a LittleBigPlanet themed world, trying to avoid hitting animals and collecting suns/energy, while learning about the good ways of green energy and electric cars all to unlock a Sackboy-head for your Home-persona (PlayStation 3-Home a few months ago); is more interesting that one small square displaying a video of the Toyota Prius (Xbox Live right now).
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
Phonomezer said:
And how many years into the 360s lifecycle did the ability to use a standard USB drive rather than a proprietary HDD or a proprietrary memory unit (remember those?) appear?
How about the firmware update that prevented third party memory accessories being used for cheaper storage?
How were those actions and decisons not anti consumer?
Hazelhurst
Member
Who is this promotional video for? This is for shareholders right?Neuromancer said:
Grinchy
Banned
I can understand not being overly bothered by the presence of the ads in the sense that you may not notice them most of the time. I just don't understand how a person gets from that point to the point of defending these ads on a paid service. You really want to fight this case on the side of the company who is charging you to view ads that they make money off of? Even if those ads don't stick out in your mind when you turn your console on, that's no reason to defend the practice.
Neuromancer
Member
Good question. It was some kind of advertising event. All I know is MS put it out on their public Youtube channel so it's not like it leaked out.Hazelhurst said:
Haha
Haha. Comparing ads in an actual separate program for the PS3 (Home) to ads that would appear on the dashboard of the 360 is kind of stretching it... I mean, the Home equivalent of ads would be ads in video games which is quite different from ads on your navigation dashboard.fernoca said:
I just had a look at Amazon US's prices and it's actually 15 dollars cheaper to buy a 4GB 360 and a separate 250GB hard drive than it is to buy the 250GB console.Zeliard said:
They removed the ability to use third party memory units at the end of October 2009 (which is anti-consumer) and added support for any USB device to be used as a memory unit at the start of April 2010 (which is not anti-consumer).MrNyarlathotep said:
Maleficence
Member
statham said:
You and others using this argument are ridiculously good at missing the point.
Not quite. Ads on the dashboard are quite different from ads in a stand alone program. You interact with the dashboard much more frequently than you would a stand alone program. It would be like saying that since an HBO original program has in program advertising, HBO is similar to the basic cable channel with regards to advertisements.statham said:
It's just different ways to advertise something. The reason of this thread is "NuAds", and how some felt it's intrusive and degrading to the overall service; when it's the equivalent of the "tweet/share" button many sites have; so you can share that with your Facebook/twitter followers. Yet, some make it out as it making things ..worse than they are.jackdoe said:
But non-paying subscribers also get the ads.Grinchy said:
They also can't play online, get the (usually crappy) "gold discounts" or participate in party chat, watch ESPN, etc.
Of course ad sucks, and of course we'd all love to at least have Microsoft remove ads for gold subscribers, but at the moment is not something really big or intrusive. Which is why some (or us?) don't mind. But also, apparently not minding it's also wrong. For the moment; I have no problems and have good fun with my old friends playing online. The moment the ads or anything intrudes with that fun, is the moment I'll stop paying. (then again the last I paid was like $12 for 4 months; so maybe if I paid more I'd feel different)
Uno Venova
Banned
It'd be nice if MS also a way to never see ads as well, especially for paying Xbox Live members, but everyone has to see that mess.fernoca said:One side only appears when you navigate and the other side is totally hidden. As others said, pretending that the ads are not there because you don't see them, doesn't change the fact that the ads are there.
But I also guess that driving a Toyota in a LittleBigPlanet themed world, trying to avoid hitting animals and collecting suns/energy, while learning about the good ways of green energy and electric cars all to unlock a Sackboy-head for your Home-persona (PlayStation 3-Home a few months ago); is more interesting that one small square displaying a video of the Toyota Prius (Xbox Live right now).
And what is this LBP stuff? I got it through the welcome pack and never ran into any Prius ads.
Around February/March, mostly in Home (and the usual small square in the XMB).upJTboogie said:
Is also had some relation to the second game; were they also had a Toyota-sponsored contest of sorts, and you had to play a level to unlock items, so you could build your own level and share it to participate in said contest.
The actual LBP2 stuff was no biggie since it was a contest for the most part (with the usual subliminal messages
). The Home thing was just ..weird. Because it was a Sackboy driving a Prius and parked it in front of the Movie Theater. There you downloaded another Home section that took you to play a top-down racing game (that also had you driving a Toyota) and the usual messages about saving the planet, electricity, contamination, nature, etc.That's the thing, since it's the same is not like you'll "run into them". It will be the same ads, only that if you have a Kinect, and click on it and say "Xbox: You suck"...it will suck.jackdoe said:
fernoca said:Around February/March, mostly in Home (and the usual small square in the XMB).
Is also had some relation to the second game; were they also had a Toyota-sponsored contest of sorts, and you had to play a level to unlock items, so you could build your own level and share it to participate in said contest.
The actual LBP2 stuff was no biggie since it was a contest for the most part (with the usual subliminal messages
I see zero ads when I boot up, check my FL, and start a game. There is a vast difference in having ads (for completely irrelevant products, i.e. RedBull) on the main OS and having a sponsored contest inside a separate program.
DangerousDave
Member
So... there is people here that thing that ads in the dashboard is the same than the ads in Home?
Probably next step will be saying that Wii has also ads if you use the browser.
Probably next step will be saying that Wii has also ads if you use the browser.
Nope.DangerousDave said:
Back to the original post, I said that there are are usually ads in Home too but that not many mind; because it's a separate program (that not many use). I then proceeded to give examples of ads on Home. In none of the posts I said it was the same thing, just talking about different things and how there are different ways to advertise things.
Like the Subway Footlong Nation thing that appeared on the XMB; but many didn't had a problem with having a Subway contest ad on their XMBs, because they were also giving away games (too bad I didn't won a game...but did received an email recently talking about me getting a footlong...to use on a Facebook game. So a digital footlong, not even a real one..
)Red Blaster
Member
Microsoft is pretty ballsy with its absolute hatred of their consumers. Raising the price of Live to $60 and then introducing this additional slippery slope. Another reason to join the glorious PC gaming master race.
Should you see ads in games if you're paying for them? Should you see ads in gaming magazines when you're paying for them?jackdoe said:
From a business perspective I don't see how MS would make up the shortfall in revenue if they made Live free and got rid of the ads. I know gamers don't care, but something would have to replace that revenue going forward, because it's not like MS is raking in huge profits from their gaming business.
Absolute hatred, lol. Some of the posts in this thread are just a little OTT!Red Blaster said:
