Ads up, games down: The ugly, profitable details about Xbox Live advertising

[Twigg4075]

The bottom line is that a lot of people are apathetic about ads starting to dominate Live, and that's why Microsoft continues to shift their model in that direction.

Yes! Exactly. I'm one of the outspoken MINORITY and that's why they will continue to do whatever the fuck they want. There are way too many people like Swarley, JMS, Seth, Leaf and countless others from this site alone that just say "Meh, they don't bother me." But they SHOULD bother you!

But the only way it will ever change is if people speak with their wallets and stop paying for Live. But unfortunately that will probably never happen.

Back to the Apple comparison, it's like people are brainwashed just to think "Eh, my Live subscription is due. What's another $50 or $60 bucks. I have to have it, right?" At least it's not as bad as "The new iPhone just released. I NEED IT NOW!" Why? "Because it's an iPhone of course!

[Twigg4075]

Its a fad, but with all three companies focused on it, it's not going to go away any time soon.

I'm not so sure. I know the Move sold well below Sony's expectations and the Wii really tanked in sales the past year or so. I don't think the Wii U is going to be as big a boom as Nintendo is expecting and even with that they are really focusing on the new tablet controller. The Kinect started out strong but because of MS's almsot complete lack of support has severaly fallen off as well.

[jms493]

Honestly....maybe I am contirbuting to this problem.....I simply don't have time to care about Xbox live and psn. I just play my games and that's it. What does annoy me is the fucking ads in games now....like NCAA.....fuck that.

[MvP]

The advertisements only bother me because the dashboard is ridiculously laggy and slow-loading, which I'd assume is from all the pics/vids from ads scattered all over the place. There is no absolutely reason for this, especially when paying $60 a year.

[leaffan]

The advertisements only bother me because the dashboard is ridiculously laggy and slow-loading, which I'd assume is from all the pics/vids from ads scattered all over the place. There is no absolutely reason for this, especially when paying $60 a year.

This statement bothers me. You're paying to use a service that works very well and is pretty expensive to maintain. Just because your paying to use things doesn't mean your entitled to not be shown ads.

[killgod]

This statement bothers me. You're paying to use a service that works very well and is pretty expensive to maintain. Just because your paying to use things doesn't mean your entitled to not be shown ads.

Alternatively, idiots pay for TV and are shown 15 mins of ads for every hour of TV they watch. Why not complain about that?

Or when you pay to see a movie and spend the first 20 mins watching ads for other shit and movies?

Do you get pissed at live sport events where ads are plastered just about everywhere?



They could ya know, not do ads and just charge you more if you'd prefer.

[leaffan]

Alternatively, idiots pay for TV and are shown 15 mins of ads for every hour of TV they watch. Why not complain about that?

Or when you pay to see a movie and spend the first 20 mins watching ads for other shit and movies?

Do you get pissed at live sport events where ads are plastered just about everywhere?



They could ya know, not do ads and just charge you more if you'd prefer.

This is pretty much true for everything. It's why subscription based newspapers are just plastered with ads all over the place.

[padman59]

Alternatively, idiots pay for TV and are shown 15 mins of ads for every hour of TV they watch. Why not complain about that?

Or when you pay to see a movie and spend the first 20 mins watching ads for other shit and movies?

Do you get pissed at live sport events where ads are plastered just about everywhere?



They could ya know, not do ads and just charge you more if you'd prefer.

But the difference here is that there are similar services that offer much of the same things but aren't inundated with ads. I think it's fair to ask why Microsoft needs to pump so many ads while Valve and Sony get by with only a fraction and offer their services free of charge.

[leaffan]

But the difference here is that there are similar services that offer much of the same things but aren't inundated with ads. I think it's fair to ask why Microsoft needs to pump so many ads while Valve and Sony get by with only a fraction and offer their services free of charge.

Valve and Sony don't offer the same services plain and simple. People that don't understand what valve and steam is and try to compare it with something like xbox live really need to look into what is being offered.

[MvP]

This statement bothers me. You're paying to use a service that works very well and is pretty expensive to maintain. Just because your paying to use things doesn't mean your entitled to not be shown ads.

I wasn't referring to being shown ads, I don't mind that. But a laggy and slow dashboard potentially due to the excess of said ads is unacceptable IMO. Back in 2005 on the original 360 dashboard, there was one little box for image ads, and loading was much faster.

 

[padman59]

Valve and Sony don't offer the same services plain and simple. People that don't understand what valve and steam is and try to compare it with something like xbox live really need to look into what is being offered.

Valve admittedly doesn't offer the same in terms of non-gaming entertainment, but the community aspect (friends list, messaging, stat tracking, etc.) is similar.

However, Sony currently does offer many of the same things outside of a cross-game party chat. It's also free and doesn't force you to see ads when you turn on your PS3 or switch games.

[NAHSTE]

People who expect their content to come without ads must not expect the creators and distributors of said content to eat or pay bills.

[leaffan]

Valve admittedly doesn't offer the same in terms of non-gaming entertainment, but the community aspect (friends list, messaging, stat tracking, etc.) is similar.

However, Sony currently does offer many of the same things outside of a cross-game party chat. It's also free and doesn't force you to see ads when you turn on your PS3 or switch games.

I don't see ad's either when I turn my xbox on but then again I rarely if ever look at the dashboard. I have the xbox to play games not to surf around the dashboard for stuff.

[leaffan]

I wasn't referring to being shown ads, I don't mind that. But a laggy and slow dashboard potentially due to the excess of said ads is unacceptable IMO. Back in 2005 on the original 360 dashboard, there was one little box for image ads, and loading was much faster.

 

The main problem is though if you wanted the old dashboard at this point you'd have to pay more money for live because their revenue from these ad campaigns is putting them into the black and basically support microsofts entertainment side. Essentially what we're all paying for now isn't quite enough to support the costs of live itself but ad revenue (amongst other things) is keeping MS going quite well.

Here's an article about the recent shape of Microsoft on the entertainment side of things:

http://www.geekwire.com/2012/microsofts-entertainment-division-diverse-profitable/

The gaming side isn't making all the money it used to be and them finding other ways of making revenue is helping a lot.

[Champ]

I do not mind the ads on xbl at all

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