Ads Retroactively Added To Wipeout HD, Soon Others [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

An anonymous reader writes "American users of Wipeout HD might have noticed that there's an advertisement showing up all of the sudden during loading, both during online and offline play. This, according to a poster on the well-known gaming forum NeoGAF, is being done covertly. The writer suspects that the display software was installed during update 2.01, and the ad-content is now being snuck in. Gamasutra has a story on the company responsible for the software to deliver these ads, Double Fusion, which said it plans to launch in-game advertising in 'another handful' of PS3 games by the end of the year. So, what's next? Can we look forward to fighting the Kool-Aid Man and zombified Mars bars in Uncharted, or is there anything that can be done to hinder companies from adding advertisements retroactively, without the customer's prior knowledge?"
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[Kid Ice]

I noticed the ad in WOHD Fury so I guess it happens in the original game too....mine was a State Farm ad which *clearly* extended the level loading time. The ad I don't care about, but making loading times longer is a big no-no in my book.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Sony took the ad out of the load screens based on negative consumer feedback and the evidence that load times were increased.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/04/so...om-wipeout-hd/

[c0ldb33r]

Goddamnit I hate Sony sometimes. I know that you're hurting for cash, but don't secretly sell my TV real estate. Whether they increased the load times or not, I think that's greasy.

[kedawa]

This is the kind of shit that makes me refuse to give Sony and Microsoft my business.
I don't want to see a single ad. Ever.
Has Nintendo started putting ads on the Wii yet?

[Ponyone]

Just wait until you start playing a new game, and from the bottom of the screen some characters from another game start pushing eachother playfully or slowly spinning around with their arms crossed, and then a big tag saying "COMING THIS FALL"

[Howie6925]

I think its kind of lame that we have to watch commercials or look at ads in games we shell out money for, because sometimes they shove the ads in our far or make a point of showing it while playing the game. If a game with an ad in it was free then it would be as bad.

[exit]

I really don't mind the whole in game ad thing, Burnout Paradise has billboards Ads around and a few others have stuff like that too. Now having commercials in games during loading times or anytime at that) is complete BS, some people have very tight bandwidth caps and having to load this crap every time you're about to start a race won't make things easier for them.

It's nice to see that Sony noticed a problem tho, they could have simply ignored the complaints, but they actually went and took them for the time being. Not that it makes it anymore OK, this type of thing will scare people away from playing certain games.

[Enigmus]

Just wait until you start playing a new game, and from the bottom of the screen some characters from another game start pushing eachother playfully or slowly spinning around with their arms crossed, and then a big tag saying "COMING THIS FALL"

Stay tuned for an all new Shovin' Buddies!

[Mr Mort]

I really don't mind the whole in game ad thing, Burnout Paradise has billboards Ads around and a few others have stuff like that too. Now having commercials in games during loading times or anytime at that) is complete BS, some people have very tight bandwidth caps and having to load this crap every time you're about to start a race won't make things easier for them.

It's nice to see that Sony noticed a problem tho, they could have simply ignored the complaints, but they actually went and took them for the time being. Not that it makes it anymore OK, this type of thing will scare people away from playing certain games.

I agree. This kind of stuff infuriates me to no end. I pay for satellite radio to avoid ads. I buy DVD's to avoid ads (even those now have some ads), and I thought my games that I paid for would be safe as well. EA's shameless billboard ads and product placements are bad enough, but actual commercials in games should be pretty much outlawed in games unless the game was given out for free.

What's worse, is that the ads were added retroactively, after consumers paid for a commercial-free product. That's a bait-and-switch tactic, and should be illegal. Had I known Sony was going to spam my loading screen with a full-fledged commercial that increased loading times, I would have never downloaded the game, no matter how much I love it.

It's a good thing they took the commercials back out, because they would have had hell to pay, but I'm concerned they're going to try it again....

[chicnstu]

I'm fine with ads being only on tv and radio...and in magazines...and movies. And at ball games, on buses, and milk cartons, and t-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky. But not in video games! No sirree.

[Sonicwolf]

I'm fine with ads being only on tv and radio...and in magazines...and movies. And at ball games, on buses, and milk cartons, and t-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky. But not in video games! No sirree.

Quit squawking, flesh wad, nobody's forcing you to buy anything. I mean we all have commercials in our media but you don't see us running off to buy brand name merchandise and games at low, low prices. *runs off to buy stuff*

[Berserker]

Well, aside from the general argument against in-game ads, the thing that makes this so disgusting is that they were added retroactively for a game people already bought up to almost a year prior.

[PentiumMMX]

I don't have a problem with ads in games if they don't get in the way of the game it's self. Stuff that actually flows with the game is fine (For example, the billboards in PGR4), but the stuff that sticks out like a sore thumb shoudn't be there at all (For example, interrupting the entire game ever so often for a commercial break, or having commericlas during the load times).

The last thing I'd want to happen is to be interrupted in the middle of playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles for a ShamWow ad.

[scooterb23]

I really don't see the big deal. There have been ads in games for years already. Heck, in some of the NBA games, there are sponsored highlight replays in game. If it doesn't affect the game, like during loading screens or such...I'm just not all that concerned by stuff like this I guess.

This post brought to you by Audible.com

[SegaAges]

The reason why I am against this is because if we allow this and just say meh, then it will progressively get worse before it gets better. Maybe after 5-10 minutes of game playing, it is all brought to a halt with a full on commercial, like the bullshit most people have accepted with TV.

No commercials at all. I am old enough to where I am around when they are trying to make this bad, so I can help stand up and fight against it.

If we let this fly, I guarentee it will get much worse very fast,

[kupomogli]

I don't mind ads being in games as long as they don't affect load times. However, I don't think we should see the ads when playing offline in one player. We should only see the ads when we play online multiplayer, because Sony is actually giving us free online, so for that I don't see a reason that we don't see ads during the load screens.

People pay for Live, yet you see ad space on the dashboard. Sure you don't have to go watch the ad, but it's still on dashboard plain as day.

[chrisbid]

if ads lower the price of a game (or make it free like in 1 vs 100 live), then I'm OK with ads in games. but we all know that will not be the case

[PapaStu]

All the ads that are going to be in games for the time being are either going to be product placement ads (which are no worse than in the movies) or static billboards. The only place that we're going to see actual commercials is on XBL (I've seen the vids of the new ads in action, don't love them one bit, but I can easily move on to my game playing and not be bothered by them).

I've played both Mercenaries 2 and Crackdown with real world ads all over the billboards and not felt bombarded (or even remotely drawn to buying that Dodge Nitro) by them. Developers are smart enough to also toss in fake ads as well, further diluting the ads presence.

I've also played numerous games where I'm bringing up my Nokia PDA or my Ericson phone ect ect and again, i'm nary influenced to go out and get that new phone or Samsung monitor.

I would like to add however that I just wish that scooterb23 had a reference link as I just feel compelled to buy Nike Air Jordan shoes and WoW gold now.

[Overbite]

yet people pay top dollar for Chase the Chuckwagon.

Wipeout XL had Red Bull ads on the loading screen too

[Mr Mort]

Wipeout XL had Red Bull ads on the loading screen too

True, but that was neither a full-motion-video commercial, nor did it increase the game's loading times. Like I said earlier, still and non-moving product placements or banners/billboards are one thing, this is escalating to something much worse.

[XYXZYZ]

I hate advertising, I can hardly stand it. I avoid television and radio to get away from advertising, don't go to movie theaters, use ad blocking software for the interwebs, turn my head away from billboards, and if my Xbox 360 wasn't sitting on a shelf collecting dust and I bought a game that actually interested me, and it had an ad in it, I'd be plenty sore at the people who put that ad there.*

*This run on sentence was brought to you by

[kupomogli]

Xyxzyz's ad is making my interwebs load slower.

[XYXZYZ]

Xyxzyz's ad is making my interwebs load slower.

Is it? In that case you should upgrade to Ultra Fast DSL, from AT&T. It's 7400 times faster than your 14.4K dialup modem, and you will have more friends IRL.

AT&T. Your world. Delivered.™

[scooterb23]

I don't do this often... but XYXZYZ just won this thread. That was hilarious!

Is it? In that case you should upgrade to Ultra Fast DSL, from AT&T. It's 7400 times faster than your 14.4K dialup modem, and you will have more friends IRL.

AT&T. Your world. Delivered.™

Walgreen's: The pharmacy America trusts.