Xbox users call out Activision and Microsoft for "vomit inducing" full-screen Modern Warfare 3 ad

Goronmon@kbin.social to Games@lemmy.world – 353 points –
Xbox users call out Activision and Microsoft for "vomit inducing" full-screen Modern Warfare 3 ad
eurogamer.net
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Normally, I think gamers overreact a bit when it comes to ads on Xbox... but this time, this full screen ad when you boot up the system should not be allowed.

Wonder what genius exec had that brilliant idea. Stupid.

You say "stupid", but I'm kind of worried it'll have a positive impact in their sales, making these types of ads the new standard... I hope not, but my expectations are getting worse and worse

That this exists at all means it is a new standard ad format they are testing out. They didn't program in a new ad format just for Activision.

So unless there's enough of a pushback that they can it, you'll be periodically seeing similar boot up ads for other games and maybe even things like McDonald's down the road.

Any sort of ad on a luxury item you've already paid for should be cause for concern for the future. Sony does have ads, but they are hidden in menus and are static text ads, not video ads (yet).

Wait...this is a thing now!?! I switched to PC, so I wouldn't know...Crazy.

Click the Win11 search bar...

PC ≠ Windows

-Your local linux evangelist

How do you know someone is a Linux user?

They'll fucking tell you.

You know, that saying doesn't work nearly as well when the conversation is actually about people's experience with operating systems.

I mean, go to any tech related post and every thread quickly becomes about Linux regardless of what it was about.

almost like linux is really important and what an absurd amount of devices run, regardless of the task they ultimately perform.

Concrete and steel are really important but construction workers don't tend to rant about it off the clock.

It's because Linux is the solution to everything including issues like world hunger and war.

"pc has ads too!"

"No thats just windows, other operating systems dont do that. Linux has no ads, for example."

"AAAAAAHHHHHH LINUX USER LINUX USER!!! AAAAAHHHHH YOU SAID IT THE DEVIL WORD LINUX AAAAAAAAHHHHH MOMMY MOMMY HOLD ME AAAAAAAHHHH THEY TOLD ME THEY USE LINUX AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH OH GOD OH FUCK OH GOD"

That's bad, but at the very least, Windows can be customized to hide all that crap. Some options are up front, some require a lot more digging, but it can be de-advertised. Xbox is way more locked down.

The first thing I do on any new Windows install is turn web results off in search. This resolves the exact problem people are constantly complaining about.

I've never seen an ad on Windows 10 or 11. Been using 11 for over a year at this point. The start menu just has my pinned apps and recent files.

There may be regional differences, depending on how much local laws allow Microsoft to profit off of you...

Which usually means just the US and Australia.

I take it you haven't used Windows 11 yet, The start menu is basically all advertisements.

You can turn them all off though

I shouldn't have to. And if I do it should all be toggles in one place. Not scattered and hidden throughout control panel, settings, and the terminal.

You shouldn't have to, but it's also something that you only have to do once and takes less than 30 seconds.

It's a minor annoyance but people act like microsoft crashed an suv into their living room and killed their cat.

It does not take 30 seconds, it takes up to five minutes. Some of these changes also get reverted with specific updates and suddenly you're seeing ads again.

I've never had this change reverted in an update.

And it does not take 5 minutes, I can do it in less than 30 seconds. It's a single key in the registry.

Thats the tailored experiences, common users dont have the knowledge to safely edit registry keys. Thats a bullshit excuse to hide ads there and you know it. Stop defending shitty practices.

i’m not defending it. literally the first thing i said was that users shouldn’t have to do this.

and it’s not the tailored experiences, i’m talking about the “feature” that puts web results in the start menu search.

all i did was add some nuance to the conversation and you’re crucifying me over it because i didn’t pile on the circlejerk.

Yes I am. Saying "its not that bad, it only takes thirty seconds" is literally defending shoving ads down our throats and making them hard to remove. That way of thinking deserves to be crucified. Ads have no place living on an OS.

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I thought there's no way... when you boot up!? Sure enough. "the ad in question pops up when players boot up their Xbox"

Wow

It was almost certainly multiple execs, from multiple companies, with Activision being the first partner for a new ad format team Xbox was rolling out but had discussed in advance with multiple agency partners.

Personally, I'd like to thank Microsoft. They've been making it easy to not regret getting a PS5 and not really even considering the xbox option that strongly. Between the series S needing to handle it for it to be allowed on the series X and now full screen ads, it's like Sony is the only one that realizes there's still competition going on.

I'd also like to thank people who still buy Xboxes anyways for giving Sony a reason to not turn the enshitification up to an 11 because it's probably more of a difference in confidence than principles.

They also recently announced that all unlicesenced third party accessories will cease to work with the Xbox as of a couple days ago.

Yeah, plenty of things that have made me glad to not have one. Has there been anything positive about Xbox in the news lately? That isn't kinda a backhand compliment, like BG3 being available on it soon while it launched everywhere else a while ago now?

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