Ads in VR Coming?

[dburne]

It appears HTC is opening the door for Adverts to start appearing in their VR headsets.

 

http://www.techradar.com/news/get-ready-for-ads-to-invade-your-htc-vive-virtual-reality-experiences

 

Also of interest excerpt from the article:

 

​<<<According to HTC, “Ads that appear in immersive VR environments can not only provide more effective impressions, they can also track whether the users have viewed them or have turned away their gaze.” >>>

 

Couple of at least somewhat positive notes:

 

Currently planned as an Opt In service.

Limited to Free to Play experiences.

 

Will be interesting to see how this catches on and if it migrates over to the Rift as well.

 

[von-Luck]

Nothing like having to contend with ads while immersed in a game. Hopefully this is restricted somewhat I would rather not have them clutter my screen or better yet deliver malware if looked at. Sorry the sky isn't falling I'm just not thrilled to hear this.

 

von Luck

[TheArcher]

Uh, these things aren't free.  They cost a lot of money - it's insane that they'd even consider implementing ads as though it were a free product.  If this becomes the norm with all VR, it'll destroy VR, and I'll probably throw my Rift in the trash.

"But DasPenguin, the Rift isn't from HTC!"

Yes, I'm aware, but it is owned by Facebook and if HTC shows they can get away with it, you can bet your arse that Facebook will do it to the Rift in short-order, especially since they just lowered their price by $200, I'm sure they're itching to make up the lost revenue somewhere.

I think in principle, if you pay for a service, it should not be subsidized with advertisements.  This is the entire reason why I refuse to get TV service anymore - because I refuse to pay potentially hundreds of dollars a month to get inundated with 5-6 minutes of ads every 7-10 minutes as though it's a free service when I can just pay Netflix $8 and get no ads - EVER.  I'll take crappy selection over getting told I need a Pepsi™ & and a new car 23 times per hour.

[itsmecamille]

I wouldn't like to see ads coming to VR, but in any case what these guys have in mind would be relevant to "home" environments, i.e. when you're in VR looking at your games list, not a forced thing in-game.

 

Forced ingame ads is a concept that has been brought up in alarmist articles once every one or two years - with 3D games we were told that publishers would forced feed us billboards with ads, and now with VR we're told the same, but this concept won't stick. What might happen is that subscription services like Viveport might have their subscription prices set low but further income generated by ads being part of the Viveport client. My guess is that this is the sort of things HTC wants to try. Facebook/Oculus might do exactly the same thing. They might say "we're giving you free content so you'll have to put up with ads in your VR home environment". Steam won't do that sort of crap, their store is generating huge revenues without a need for anything else than what they currently have (ads for games when you open Steam). Just my 2 cents anyway, but it really sounds like the same old story, nothing new.

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

Adblock VR plus+

:D

Run adblock now not seen a ad on youtube in over a year (its terrible watch a 30 second video and adblock stops over 150 attempts of ad loading :D

[OrLoK]

Hello there

 

Anarchy Online ran video ads on screens in their virtual world. Really easy to avoid if you were not interested. Wasn't an issue, for me.

 

Im a rift user and as long as it was well implemented, I wouldnt care at all if it came to our platform.

 

there are ways of doing it well and ways to make it a pain, wait and see and give constructive feedback!

 

Rdgs

 

LoK

[1./KG4_Blackwolf]

Yeah I doubt we will see ads in game. Maybe when you start Viveport or whatever but not in game. Just getting in a dogfight then... "Car insurance ad will end in 30 seconds..." wont fly. Pardon the pun.

[dburne]

Yeah I doubt we will see ads in game. Maybe when you start Viveport or whatever but not in game. Just getting in a dogfight then... "Car insurance ad will end in 30 seconds..." wont fly. Pardon the pun.

 

Maybe - but of note was the comment it would initially be limited to free to play offerings, so maybe some of them will be in game...

 

It will be interesting nonetheless to see where this leads.

[Jade_Monkey]

It was inevitable. I hate ads no matter where they are.