This post was originally published in our old design. We apologise if it looks a little bit odd as a result, but feel free to let us know.
If you’ve downloaded the latest dashboard update for your Xbox 360, you’ve undoubtedly realised at the uncomfortably high presence of adverts that plague an otherwise quite pleasant aesthetic – shame the same can’t be said for the usability design. Unfortunately, it seems that the new design is set to have even more of a focus on advertising.
Microsoft’s senior business director for Xbox Live Advertising in Europe, Dean Carignan, said that the potential for advertisers was huge, with Xbox Live users spending almost 60 hours a month on the service – amounting to 2.4 billion hours a month when you consider there’s 40 million accounts.
“With the launch of our new Xbox 360 experience, we’re offering advertisers two new opportunities in the form of standard 30-second spots within traditional TV content on Xbox Live, and Kinect-enabled branded destination experiences,” he said.
Additionally, he mentioned the company’s commitment to in-game ads and a focus on “video and display ads on the Xbox Live dashboard or home screen, branded destination experiences (i.e. dedicated brand pages) and sponsorship opportunities.”
“We believe Xbox Live is poised to play a significant role in TV advertising in the future. No other network in the world can give advertisers and consumers these types of branded experiences, and we plan to bring even more groundbreaking interactive TV advertising solutions in 2012 and beyond.”
Personally, I don’t really enjoy my dashboard being clogged up with adverts given that I pay £40 a year for Xbox Live in the first place. What are your thoughts? Do you mind the adverts or is it going too far?
2:44 PM
I’ve noticed they are there but have rarely noticed what they are advertising. I’ve managed to de-tune from advertising through years of ignoring TV and internet advertisements.
And if they are advertising products for Xbox, the people paying to advertise are the daft ones.
5:29 PM
The global marketing campaigns are always looking for a brand new way to advertise, and Ads on games is fast becoming the mainstream.
I’ve seen free games littered with advertisements on my mobile already, though I usually blank them out. I was only aware that Microsoft’s Sudoku had adverts when my other half proclaimed “McDonalds are trying to sell me burgers!”
Personally I wouldn’t mind if I wasn’t paying for Xbox Live Gold to have third parties advertise products online. Thing is, I’ve been a subscriber for years! How they should do it is have a service where people have a limited online multiplayer gametime (not including Xbox Live Party function, that should be made Free regardless!) in exchange for getting adverts out there. Paying customers shouldn’t see the ads.
7:29 PM
When I saw the new dashboard, the ads were the first thing I noticed. The fact that ads are so much more prominent than your actual content is pretty shady, and the idea of in-game ads is deplorable, whether it’s in free games, demos or even in your own games.
For a subscription service, I’m shocked there is such a focus on ads. Usually paying for a service means ads go away…