Xbox owners have once again hit back at Microsoft for “very disappointing” advertisements.
This time, the full-screen advertisements – which players currently cannot opt-out from – were to raise awareness about last week’s Developer Direct showcase.
“The Xbox consoles are not and never were advertised or sold as a subsidised device, but the ads are sure making it feel like one,” posted one irate player. “This feels akin to getting an Amazon Kindle at a discount because its ad supported.
“If you defend this, I won’t ever understand why you do. If you are apathetic to it, I completely understand you and if you’re disappointed by it, I’m with you.”
The Verge’s Tom Warren similarly posted a picture of the intrusive advertisement, saying: “The fullscreen Xbox pop-up ad has returned for the Developer Direct. I just turned on my console and got this one.”
“ANOTHER full screen ad before getting to the dashboard,” posted another player (thanks, ComicBook). “I guess this is the new thing now on Xbox. Xbox very disappointing.”
“I don’t mind ads for events about their games, not everybody is on social media and it reminds people where to watch it if they are interested,” opined one less irritated player. “They’re also easy to dismiss by pressing B.
“What I really don’t like about this ad is it’s burning my eyes with how white it is.”
Players are now calling for a means of disabling full-screen adverts, or maybe even advertising altogether, as smaller, arguably less intrusive adverts have been appearing on Xbox dashboards for over a decade now.
This isn’t the first time players have hit out at Xbox advertisements, either. Back in November, Activision and Xbox released full-screen ads for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on the console’s homepage, which were also heavily criticised at the time.