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.
No, that's just Arch Linux users.
I use Arch, btw.
We just need the rest of the Linux gang to experience the glory of pacman+AUR, it's not our fault they don't listen.
NixOS users too
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.
It's because Linux is the solution to everything including issues like world hunger and war.
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.
"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"
Lol exaggerate much?
Yeah bud, thats kinda the point
"Exaggerate for comedic effect" is one of the oldest comedy standards.
Cry harder
Am I crying? No, I'm laughing at you.
Laughing, but just in the pauses between each ad you’re reading or dismissing, I imagine.
Truly the vegans of tech
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.
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.
Wtf?
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?
Meanwhile, over on Reddit, several members of the Xbox community have labelled this marketing stunt "vomit inducing" and "unacceptable".
People still on Reddit want someone to take their complaints seriously? Empirically speaking, they will accept this.
People still on Reddit want someone to take their complaints seriously? Empirically speaking, they will accept this.
Nah, it's more than the communities on places like Reddit and lemmy/kbin are so small and unimportant relative to the overall consumer market that you can pretty much ignore them completely.
Yep, that's more significant for sure. People on any online forum are a loud minority.
It is a cheap dig, but I just found it funny that people who have demonstrated with (lack of) action that they do in fact not care enough to change their habits use a term like "unacceptable".
They are the same people who complain when a news story alerts them to the fact that facebook is collecting their data. They whine about how the govt should do something about this egregious act, and then share that with all their facebook friends.
and of course they refuse to engage in politics and vote for people who want to restrict advertisements.
fucking vote, people
Picture related will never not sum up internet boycotts.
Entertainment industry as a whole is about to relearn some painful lessons about customer satisfaction. Every day there’s a new reason to hoist the black flag on predatory capitalism.
eh, will it affect their profit? or will it direct enough people to the New Microsoft Game Out Now! that it's worth annoying everyone else.
the only painful lesson is if they lose money, which they probably won't.
Just speaking for myself, I bought a PS5 mainly because it's where I can play Demon's Souls but after Microsoft bought Activision I figured I would inevitably end up buying a Series X as well. Seeing stuff like this means I'll probably never buy an Xbox again, regardless of what exclusives they've managed to acquire.
I know I'm not representative of everyone, but I hope there are enough others like me to make their invasive advertising push very unprofitable for Microsoft.
I'm with you, I was on the fence for either an xbox or steam deck. I'm now firmly on the steam deck side.
Unfortunately it won't make a difference, and odds are they actually gain from this.
This kind of thing is the reason I've started moving completely away from Microsoft platforms, including Windows. Microsoft is getting more and more invasive and aggressive pushing advertising onto people in their own private spaces, and that is unacceptable.
Since I'm a PC gamer first and foremost, I don't use XBox... and after this, I won't. Ever. This was just MS dipping their toes in to see if they could get away with it.
Thankfully, with Valve continuing to rapidly improve Proton, just about any Windows game runs on Linux now with very little elbow grease. No Microsoft necessary.
with Valve continuing to rapidly improve Proton, just about any Windows game runs on Linux now
I hope this is actually true, or becomes true. The only reason I'm on Windows is for gaming.
Heck even my Bitwig DAW runs on Linux.
it's to the point that even pirated games generally Just Work if you run them via steam, it's magic
I've had a Day 1 edition Xbox One that I've used nearly every day since release. Admittedly, not great for games, but it's been an absolute powerhouse of a media center for me. Twitch, youtube, plex, any streaming service, and a blu ray. If for some reason I can't stream something to it, I can plug in my chromecast or laptop, and with passthrough, it's literally all I've needed in my living room for the past 10 years.
For the first time yesterday I very honestly considered boxing it up and getting rid of it after booting it up and getting this forced full screen ad before getting to my homepage. Fuck this shit.
I had pretty much the same experience. I loved using my Xbox One as an entertainment centre, but the most recent dashboard update made me never want to turn it on again.
You shouldn't consider it. You should do it. But too bad M$ already has the money so they won't care of you flog the unit off second hand.
Windows 10 gave me a notification telling me to buy Starfield the other day. fuck off
You should probably disable it if you don't want to see it. My windows 10 hasn't advertised to me in any way ever.
Yeah, it sucks that by default it's all enabled, but it's nice that we at least have the option to fully disable all of it. And I haven't had to reg edit or anything. All the settings are reachable in the operating system itself. If you can't find it all, there are plenty of guides.
I must be good at ignoring them, because this is the first I’ve gotten one and read it.
I didn’t know there was an opt out process.
That must be the positive change to the industry the takeover was promised to bring.
We need legislation to protect from ad placement. It should not be the case that advertisers can get to you on your premium devices in places they could not to begin with.
Manufacturers should have to outline in their launch and marketing material where ads are going to be posted and after that they cannot expand it.
I remember the PS4 having a load of bullshit apps waiting to be downloaded too, I bought the most expensive version you sell, how am I to escape ads if not through that.
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.
No, that's just Arch Linux users.
I use Arch, btw.
We just need the rest of the Linux gang to experience the glory of pacman+AUR, it's not our fault they don't listen.
NixOS users too
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.
It's because Linux is the solution to everything including issues like world hunger and war.
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.
"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"
Lol exaggerate much?
Yeah bud, thats kinda the point
"Exaggerate for comedic effect" is one of the oldest comedy standards.
Cry harder
Am I crying? No, I'm laughing at you.
Laughing, but just in the pauses between each ad you’re reading or dismissing, I imagine.
Truly the vegans of tech
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.
I have, but there aren't any unskippable ads at startup.
Classic Microsoft.
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.
Wtf?
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?
People still on Reddit want someone to take their complaints seriously? Empirically speaking, they will accept this.
Nah, it's more than the communities on places like Reddit and lemmy/kbin are so small and unimportant relative to the overall consumer market that you can pretty much ignore them completely.
Yep, that's more significant for sure. People on any online forum are a loud minority.
It is a cheap dig, but I just found it funny that people who have demonstrated with (lack of) action that they do in fact not care enough to change their habits use a term like "unacceptable".
They are the same people who complain when a news story alerts them to the fact that facebook is collecting their data. They whine about how the govt should do something about this egregious act, and then share that with all their facebook friends.
and of course they refuse to engage in politics and vote for people who want to restrict advertisements.
fucking vote, people
Picture related will never not sum up internet boycotts.
Entertainment industry as a whole is about to relearn some painful lessons about customer satisfaction. Every day there’s a new reason to hoist the black flag on predatory capitalism.
eh, will it affect their profit? or will it direct enough people to the New Microsoft Game Out Now! that it's worth annoying everyone else.
the only painful lesson is if they lose money, which they probably won't.
Just speaking for myself, I bought a PS5 mainly because it's where I can play Demon's Souls but after Microsoft bought Activision I figured I would inevitably end up buying a Series X as well. Seeing stuff like this means I'll probably never buy an Xbox again, regardless of what exclusives they've managed to acquire.
I know I'm not representative of everyone, but I hope there are enough others like me to make their invasive advertising push very unprofitable for Microsoft.
I'm with you, I was on the fence for either an xbox or steam deck. I'm now firmly on the steam deck side.
Unfortunately it won't make a difference, and odds are they actually gain from this.
That's like going from one monopoly to another.
If nothing else, I'm with you ✊ Lemmy has done wonders for me finding alternatives for everything.
I'm looking forward to getting a Steam Deck, and my next home computer is gonna be Linux-based for sure ❤️
The crowd may not follow us, but there are plenty of us who are happy not playing everyone else's shitty game.
This kind of thing is the reason I've started moving completely away from Microsoft platforms, including Windows. Microsoft is getting more and more invasive and aggressive pushing advertising onto people in their own private spaces, and that is unacceptable.
Since I'm a PC gamer first and foremost, I don't use XBox... and after this, I won't. Ever. This was just MS dipping their toes in to see if they could get away with it.
Thankfully, with Valve continuing to rapidly improve Proton, just about any Windows game runs on Linux now with very little elbow grease. No Microsoft necessary.
I hope this is actually true, or becomes true. The only reason I'm on Windows is for gaming.
Heck even my Bitwig DAW runs on Linux.
it's to the point that even pirated games generally Just Work if you run them via steam, it's magic
I've had a Day 1 edition Xbox One that I've used nearly every day since release. Admittedly, not great for games, but it's been an absolute powerhouse of a media center for me. Twitch, youtube, plex, any streaming service, and a blu ray. If for some reason I can't stream something to it, I can plug in my chromecast or laptop, and with passthrough, it's literally all I've needed in my living room for the past 10 years.
For the first time yesterday I very honestly considered boxing it up and getting rid of it after booting it up and getting this forced full screen ad before getting to my homepage. Fuck this shit.
I had pretty much the same experience. I loved using my Xbox One as an entertainment centre, but the most recent dashboard update made me never want to turn it on again.
You shouldn't consider it. You should do it. But too bad M$ already has the money so they won't care of you flog the unit off second hand.
Windows 10 gave me a notification telling me to buy Starfield the other day. fuck off
You should probably disable it if you don't want to see it. My windows 10 hasn't advertised to me in any way ever.
Yeah, it sucks that by default it's all enabled, but it's nice that we at least have the option to fully disable all of it. And I haven't had to reg edit or anything. All the settings are reachable in the operating system itself. If you can't find it all, there are plenty of guides.
I must be good at ignoring them, because this is the first I’ve gotten one and read it.
I didn’t know there was an opt out process.
That must be the positive change to the industry the takeover was promised to bring.
We need legislation to protect from ad placement. It should not be the case that advertisers can get to you on your premium devices in places they could not to begin with.
Manufacturers should have to outline in their launch and marketing material where ads are going to be posted and after that they cannot expand it.
I remember the PS4 having a load of bullshit apps waiting to be downloaded too, I bought the most expensive version you sell, how am I to escape ads if not through that.
Feels like what happened with android tv.