(More) Ads Coming To Xbox 360 Dashboard?

[Ji@nBing]

Sean Alexander, director at Microsoft's Advertising Business Group, has suggested that you could soon be seeing advertisements every time you fire up your 360 dashboard. Apparently, Microsoft "plans to bring IAB specifications for rich media technologies, including Silverlight, to Xbox Live within the year". With Silverlight being Microsoft's version of/competitor to Flash, MediaPost say "Silverlight-powered media on Xbox will have the same appearance as ads seen on a Web browser".

Since the goal is for advertising companies to launch the same campaign across multiple platforms - desktop, TV, mobile phone and Surface (Microsoft's touch-screen table) - it sounds a lot like the tech would be used on the 360 to display ads on your dashboard. And not the gaming ads you already see. Regular ads.

This had better only be for Silver users. I'm not paying an annual fee to get stuck with ads.

We've contacted Microsoft for an explanation of how exactly this tech will be used with Xbox Live, and will update if we hear anything.

Source

As the article says, this had better be silver only. If not, perhaps it's going to be free Live for all? Very doubtful, but one can dream... :p

[spenser.d]

Lol @ the mock-up :p

If they're anything like the ads we have now, I could really care less.

-Spenser

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

More ads on the dashboard? :blink:

it sounds a lot like the tech would be used on the 360 to display ads on your dashboard. And not the gaming ads you already see. Regular ads.

There's no way in hell MS can put regular adds on the dashboard for Gold owners and get away without a massive backlash.

Other source

Microsoft Adding Silverlight-Based Rich Media To Xbox Live Ads

Microsoft plans to bring its Silverlight graphical framework to Xbox 360, enabling portability of online advertising campaigns between the console and other Silverlight-supporting platforms.

According to a MediaPost report, Microsoft will open up space for advertising, presumably on the Xbox Live Dashboard, that will be identical to what is available for web ads, and will conform to Interactive Advertising Bureau guidelines.

Silverlight as a technology is similar in intent to, and a competitor of, Adobe Flash. It is used for advertising as well as other purposes, such as browser-based games and video streaming.

The article specifically indicates that "Silverlight-powered media on Xbox will have the same appearance as ads seen on a Web browser."

Video rental service Netflix recently began using Silverlight for web-based streaming, and MediaPost says Microsoft will also use the technology to add more and better-quality video streaming options to Xbox 360.

With the move, Microsoft is aiming to make advertising available across personal computers, consoles, mobile phones, and even devices based on Microsoft Surface, with a minimum of redevelopment necessary between platforms.

Source: http://gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24265

On an upbeat note, silverlight is far better than flash...

[spenser.d]

More ads on the dashboard? :blink:

There's no way in hell MS can put regular adds on the dashboard for Gold owners and get away without one hell of a backlash.

I didn't mean it that way. I mean if they're just stuck in as slides on, say, the spotlight section, I could still care less.

And honestly, I can pretty much guarantee there wouldn't be a backlash. I doubt most of the market would notice unless they actually did something like that picture shows. And even then, people would get over it and get back to playing pretty fast. I know I would.

I love when people freak out over ads. They really aren't that hard to block out of your frame of reference.

That being said, if it turned out like that picture shows (which it's not based on the articles) I would be annoyed.

-Spenser

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I didn't mean it that way. I mean if they're just stuck in as slides on, say, the spotlight section, I could still care less.

And honestly, I can pretty much guarantee there wouldn't be a backlash. I doubt most of the market would notice unless they actually did something like that picture shows. And even then, people would get over it and get back to playing pretty fast. I know I would.

I love when people freak out over ads. They really aren't that hard to block out of your frame of reference.

-Spenser

Take that one yourself.

If they start putting burger king, car and toothpaste ads on your 360 dashboard whilst you're paying a monthly subscription I doubt people are going to be best 'happy'. They get away with the spotlight ads just now as at least it's gaming ads (some relevance), but even then people are requesting for an option their 360's to boot up on the my xbox "blade", not spotlight.

People are complaining about the speeds of the dash as it is, we don't need to be loading advertisements from remote servers on top of it...

Microsoft best clear this up before people go crazy with it :p

I have no issues if this is for free applications, such as music/video streaming or games (think flash games), I can understand why they need to be ad supported, but not my main dash.

[HawkMan]

It won't be anything like that picture because

1: it's ugly and not integrated at all

2: there's no way to navigate to them.

[spenser.d]

Take that one yourself.

If they start putting burger king, car and toothpaste ads on your 360 dashboard whilst you're paying a monthly subscription I doubt people are going to be best 'happy'. They get away with the spotlight ads just now as at least it's gaming ads (some relevance), but even then people are requesting for an option their 360's to boot up on the my xbox "blade", not spotlight.

People are complaining about the speeds of the dash as it is, we don't need to be loading advertisements from remote servers on top of it...

See I don't get the whole complaining about booting up in the Spotlight section. It takes all of a half second to go up one to the My Xbox part. I rarely ever even notice what's going on in the spotlight section because it's never showing for more than a second when I load things up.

Also, I don't think Microsoft allows loading to XBL from remote servers, so that's a nonissue. I'm sure they're taking this quite seriously and it's not going to be nearly as bad as you're making it out to be. Nothing MS does (with the 360) really ever is.

-Spenser

-Spenser

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

It won't be anything like that picture because

1: it's ugly and not integrated at all

2: there's no way to navigate to them.

You don't need to navigate to them... an advert for mcdonalds doesn't need a site behind it, You don't interact with bill boards... or magazine ads...

[spenser.d]

You don't need to navigate to them... an advert for mcdonalds doesn't need a site behind it, You don't interact with bill boards... or magazine ads...

You do on the 360, and you can damn well bet that that's not going to change.

-Spenser

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

See I don't get the whole complaining about booting up in the Spotlight section. It takes all of a half second to go up one to the My Xbox part. I rarely ever even notice what's going on in the spotlight section because it's never showing for more than a second when I load things up.

Also, I don't think Microsoft allows loading to XBL from remote servers, so that's a nonissue. I'm sure they're taking this quite seriously and it's not going to be nearly as bad as you're making it out to be. Nothing MS does (with the 360) really ever is.

-Spenser

-Spenser

Let me put it this way, the 360 belongs to you, you paid for it outright, there is no contract or part ownership. MS have their ads in the marketplace/spotlight and that's fine, that's their content you're accessing. In NXE you have the My Xbox tab and the friends tab, those belong to you, everything else MS own. On XMB you just have one big tab, same as on your PC desktop running Windows. In both of these environments your content is the central focus, because both pieces of hardware are yours. You paid for them, you use them, they're yours. It's your games, videos, music, contacts, etc that you see.

Once you visit the Playstation Store, you're accessing Sony's content, you see promos/ads for games/apps. Once you load internet explorer on your PC, you're accessing other people's content, you see ads.

There does not need to be ads scattered around your private space.

That's why it's okay for the spotlight, but IMO not any of your private spaces that consist of your content, not someone else's.

Do I want McDonalds putting up posters in my house or on my land? Nope. What about across the street from me in view from my house window? Gotta let them do it, I don't own that space.

Edited July 1, 2009 by Audioboxer

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

All the ads are relevant on the NXE, all the content is either content you can buy or gaming related (i.e IGN Strategize videos).

It doesn't sound to me like they are going to add more ads, but just change the tech used to deliver them.

No where does it say they are increasing the number of ads, all it says is there will be ads that aren't strictly gaming related. Who knows what they have planned. It could be anything like Sky, Last.fm, Facebook or Twitter ads. Those are all going to become a big part of the NXE in the next few months.

MS aren't stupid, they aren't going to flood users with McDonalds, Coke or toothpaste ads. If they did they know it would backlash.

Kings of software remember, have faith ;)

[spenser.d]

Let me put it this way, the 360 belongs to you, you paid for it outright, there is no contract or part ownership. MS have their ads in the marketplace/spotlight and that's fine, that's their content you're accessing. In NXE you have the My Xbox tab and the friends tab, those belong to you, everything else MS own. On XMB you just have one big tab, same as on your PC desktop running Windows. In both of these environments your content is the central focus, because both pieces of hardware are yours. You paid for them, you use them, they're yours. It's your games, videos, music, contacts, etc that you see.

Once you visit the Playstation Store, you're accessing Sony's content, you see promos/ads for games/apps. Once you load internet explorer on your PC, you're accessing other people's content, you see ads.

There does not need to be ads scattered around your private space.

That's why it's okay for the spotlight, but IMO not any of your private spaces that consist of your content, not someone else's.

Do I want McDonalds putting up posters in my house or on my land? Nope. What about across the street from me in view from my house window? Gotta let them do it, I don't own that space.

Thing is, you're assuming they're going to put ads in your space (My Xbox/Friends) and you have no evidence of that, and quite frankly, that's probably not going to happen, so your point is completely moot. That's what I was getting at when I said Microsoft is taking this seriously. They don't generally mess these things up when it comes to the 360. Not to mention, like DM said, we don't even know if they're putting more ads on the dash at all. You're overblowing the situation.

-Spenser

[Xero]

Yay for PS3. No ads in XMB :D Although for 360 owners sake I hope they don't pollute the interface too much. At the same time a free ad based Live service might be nice.

[spenser.d]

I hate being right... ;)

I?ve seen quite a bit of discussion today about how we?re bringing Silverlight ads to LIVE in the future.

I need to let you know that you don?t need to worry about a huge influx of ads across the dashboard. One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the LIVE community. Silverlight will help make those ads a more organic part of the dashboard, like we?ve done with some of the NXE slots in the past. No one on the team wants to turn the dashboard into something that looks like like Shibuya Crossing. That?s just not good for anyone.

http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/07/01/...-xbox-live.aspx

-Spenser

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Right there with you Stifler (Y)

[HawkMan]

Yay for PS3. No ads in XMB :D Although for 360 owners sake I hope they don't pollute the interface too much. At the same time a free ad based Live service might be nice.

There's no ads in the guide either, which is the equivalent. The dashboard is practically all live stuff, and you never have to actually use the dashboard.

you can can start up right into a game, you can use the guide for anything, even grabbing addons for the game you're playing. and to shut of the console or play background music. You never actually HAVE to use the dashboard on the 360. Wich is the way it should be. After all why should you need to use an operating system on a gaming machine.

in Any case, if you don't want to see ads, that's easy enough. just use the guide. Not the dashboard which is just a XBLM portal anyway.

[Ji@nBing]

I hate being right... ;)

http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/07/01/...-xbox-live.aspx

-Spenser

Ok, and how are more ads supposed to "enhance" my gaming experience?!?!? :blink:

[Remysaus]

Ads for some new energy drink could be considered useful for some gamers :p Ontopic; I'm not too bothered with it, as long as it's not more than a box like we see now on the spotlight..

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Ok, and how are more ads supposed to "enhance" my gaming experience?!?!? :blink:

There is NO mention of "more ads" anywhere in these articles.

Major Nelson has already confirmed that they are switching to SilverLight and they will still be gaming related.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the LIVE community. Silverlight will help make those ads a more organic part of the dashboard, like we’ve done with some of the NXE slots in the past

Still confirms the ads are coming even if they replace the spotlight. They better be tucked away on a tab like the spotlight, or on the spotlight itself... Saying they want to make them more organic suggests it's not a simple replacement of the spotlight ads for ones that move or are animated like what silverlight could do.

Doesn't say it's gaming ads only, says it's ads relevant to the LIVE community. Could be for anything related to Xbox, adverts for movies/music/peripherals. Hence "work directly with our partners".

And for stifler saying no one would backlash, look at the comments on Major Nelsons blog...

[Bhav]

?40 per yearand> ads...yay!

[MightyJordan]

If they do put more ads in for Xbox Live Gold members, they better cut the price down. ?30 a year would suit me; hell, even ?20!:p:p Then the ultimate dream, free Xbox Live Gold, which could actually happen, as there's over 20 million Xbox Live members. So one ad reaching 20+ million people, that would mean a lot of advertising money!

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

?40 per yearand> ads...yay!

?0 a year and third place..ya:D:D

Wait..:ermm:m:

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

?0 a year and third place..yay:DD

Wait...:ermm::

Third place affects my viewing of XMB/the operating of the console in my house? I don't think so.

His comment is asking for bait off Xbox owners, it's a one liner about Sony in the MS section. However I have seen some absolutely ridiculous defending of advertisements over the past day now as if they somehow improve the service of Live (people comparing XBL to TV? what?). They don't improve anything, Live is as good a service as it is based off the software code, not advertisements. The spotlight has some genuine use as it does advertise new gaming content, but if it's sole reason of being there was just to "enhance" the experience you'd of thought MS would let people view it at their own will, not make it the main start-up to your console. Wii/PS3/PC as I pointed out above all bootup to your personal content first, as that's what they deem as most important to your experience,your> content on they deviceyou> own, not someone else's content.

What does MS do with the money they coin off of subscribers? I thought that was for the running costs of Live... At least that's the arguments everyone used to make back in the day with the comment of "who pays for the bandwidth you're using on your 360?" when anyone as much as mentioned the Wii or PS3 or a PC being free to play online. That's what ticks off people most, most people's perceptions are Live costs are paid to support the mainframe/operating system MS are running as the backbone of the service, which people happily pay for the quality of service, yet the 360 out of all the platforms is the only one that has advertising as well through the main operating system (dashboard). Advertising only enters the frame on your PC/Wii and PS3 once you leave your space/main operating system and access someone else's content (usually through an application).

If they do put more ads in for Xbox Live Gold members, they better cut the price down. ?30 a year would suit me; hell, even ?20:p :p Then the ultimate dream, free Xbox Live Gold, which could actually happen, as there's over 20 million Xbox Live members. So one ad reaching 20+ million people, that would mean a lot of advertising money!

A free ad supported version of Live with ads would be aweso(Y)(Y)

Ironic after I bashed ads? Maybe sounds it, but it's all about paying for a subscriptiand/b> receiving ads. The idea of a subscription is usually to get something ad free (along with other extras) as you're paying guaranteed money to the provider, which means they aren't relying on you seeing their ads or clicking on them.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Third place affects my viewing of XMB/the operating of the console in my house? I don't think so.

His comment is asking for bait off Xbox owners, it's a one liner about Sony in the MS section. However I have seen some absolutely ridiculous defending of advertisements over the past day now as if they somehow improve the service of Live (people comparing XBL to TV? what?). They don't improve anything, Live is as good a service as it is based off the software code, not advertisements. The spotlight has some genuine use as it does advertise new gaming content, but if it's sole reason of being there was just to "enhance" the experience you'd of thought MS would let people view it at their own will, not make it the main start-up to your console. Wii/PS3/PC as I pointed out above all bootup to your personal content first, as that's what they deem as most important to your experience, your content on they device you own, not someone else's content.

What does MS do with the money they coin off of subscribers? I thought that was for the running costs of Live... At least that's the arguments everyone used to make back in the day with the comment of "who pays for the bandwidth you're using on your 360?" when anyone as much as mentioned the Wii or PS3 or a PC being free to play online. That's what ticks off people most, most people's perceptions are Live costs are paid to support the mainframe/operating system MS are running as the backbone of the service, which people happily pay for the quality of service, yet the 360 out of all the platforms is the only one that has advertising as well through the main operating system (dashboard). Advertising only enters the frame on your PC/Wii and PS3 once you leave your space/main operating system and access someone else's content (usually through an application).

Yes I know what Bhav was doing AB, been reading his comments for many years now and his tune never changes. He was the Playstation daddy long before you were on the scene :p

Like I've been saying, what and see what "partners" they are, but you can bet it won't be McDonalds and the like. Microsoft must have one of the longest lists for partners out there, but they aren't stupid and they won't flood gamers with ads that aren't relevant. Hell, they've already told us they're not going to flood us full stop. My opinion is we'll not see any new areas of the NXE used for ads, but instead it'll just be the same location with different companies. We'll need to wait and see.

I'm still going to pay for XBL because it offers a superior over the rest, and until that changes (if that changes) then I'll continue paying for it.

The money we pay for XBL goes towards more than bandwidth costs, that's always been the case, not sure who you are referring to in your last argument. The money goes towards the special deals like Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, Sky etc etc. All the exclusive DLC they secure like GTA4 and FO3. It's not like Apple where shareholders is just sitting around in a vault while Steve Jobs jumps off a diving board swimming in it.