I have a hard unbreakable rule:
Free, you can serve me ads, I’ll try to avoid them but ok. But the minute I pay for something and you try to give me ads on top, we’re gonna have a problem.
Gamers enraged at Ubisoft for injecting ads into the middle of video games
Submitted 11 months ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.techspot.com/news/100953-gamers-enraged-ubisoft-injecting-ads-middle-video-games.html
Comments
madcaesar@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Blackmist@feddit.uk 11 months ago
This is why Amazon Prime was an instant cancel.
interceder270@lemmy.world 11 months ago
If you still want to watch amazon video content, you can stream pretty much anything for free here: fmoviesz.to
Just make sure you have Adnauseam or uBlock Origin installed.
I just started watching the 2nd season of Invincible :)
scarabic@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s cable TV in a nutshell. Pay to watch ads.
parpol@programming.dev 11 months ago
[deleted]Ravi@feddit.de 11 months ago
I don’t mind a little ad in the menu, about stuff directly related to game I’m playing. Those little “Hey we released a new content dlc to this exact game” infos can actually be informative. What I really can’t stand is stuff breaking the immersion of the game. I’m not even mad about product placements, when they fit the theme and are sparsely used.
MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Yeah, product placements like for sports games are fine… I expect to see ads in a park, arena, or stadium.
Primarily0617@kbin.social 11 months ago
Baldur's Gate 3 was probably the best game of this year (?), but it has an advert for the DLC as soon as you launch it
However, it's also probably one of the least-bad "triple A" games of this year when it comes to overall monetisation, that singular DLC of cosmetics and the soundtrack being the only one available
Unfortunately, I think this one is a losing battle
ThunderclapSasquatch@startrek.website 11 months ago
Advertising dlc is ok in my opinion, it’s for the product you’re using and not everyone checks for new dlc
HandBreadedTools@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Baldur’s Gate 3 has no dlc at all. It has no dlc even announced, let alone available for purchase. Stop making shit up lol. Their launcher has info about the different games they’ve made and their prices, but when you actually launch the game it has NO ad of any sort. You could only barely call the info in their launcher an ad in the first place.
Madison_rogue@kbin.social 11 months ago
Sony didn't have both versions readily available in the Playstation Store. While I did eventually purchase the DLC (which is the deluxe version, not a typical DLC) of the game, I'll be damned that Sony didn't make it easy to find the OG version in the store.
And I put that on Sony, not the game publisher. Regardless, BG3 has been a breath of fresh air to gaming this year. About time a studio put out a full game without divvying it up into expansions and DLCs.
Railison@aussie.zone 11 months ago
I don’t mind in-game ads printed on in-map billboards and stuff, but ads that interrupt gameplay? Fuck that. Especially if you’ve paid for the content.
Lightborne@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I don’t mind in-game ads printed on in-map billboards and stuff
Not ten years ago people were complaining about this very thing.
It’s fascinating to watch the boiling frog in basically real time.
2deck@lemmy.world 11 months ago
10 years later…
I don’t mind ads that interrupt gameplay, but i hate when they require you to smile at your webcam and say “i love corporation!” and give two thumbs up. Other than that, the gameplay is monotinous enough to help me forget who i am and that the world is burning.
9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
I dont mind it when it makes sense… Like ad boards in fifa games make sense…
But if it breaka immersion, then it’s stupid
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
The coin-op Pole Position in 1982 had a number of regional ads on billboards along the track, including Pepsi and Marlboro, which was the first instance of product placement in a video game.
In 2007 a number of games featured sponsored product placement. Rainbow Six: Vegas had billboards with Comcast adverts, and a Comcast company kiosk in a convention center. Far Cry 2 (humorously) had Jeep vehicles, including a couple of civilian SUVs that were significantly more cushy than the rest of the vehicles in the game. The implication being the choice of PMCs and African warlords was not the flex Jeep hoped for.
In the 2010s, companies started renting billboards on their game levels for advertising that would be regularly updated, including a couple of Ubisoft’s MMO-lite titles. I think The Division 2 was one of them in which, again it was product placement. The annoyance was more that these were always-online games in which users had to be connected to the server even when they were playing single player, and the downloaded adverts only contributed to the awareness this wasn’t for the advantage of the players involved.
These days, there are some pretty serious reasons not to play Ubisoft games, from their overuse and misuse of microtransactions, and piecemeal marketing, to the extremely toxic work environment that continues to be a norm in Ubisoft offices, including the sexual harassment and coercion of attractive clerks and developers by the executive staff, for which there there wasn’t adequate disclosure or contrition by Ubisoft public relations.
I gave up Ubisoft games after 2020, and don’t even play the Ubisoft games I own (which might at some point cost me access to them, since I do not routinely sign onto Uplay or whatever it’s called now.
slaacaa@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Drink verification can!
ArmokGoB@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
I remember seeing ads for real products in Need for Speed: Carbon (2006) and Cities XL (2008). I never really had a problem with diegetic ads that made sense (like on billboards). Interrupting gameplay to serve ads is going over the line.
daYMAN007@feddit.de 11 months ago
To be fair trackmania where ubisoft implemented that is free2play. And you can deactivate it when you bought their subscription, the only issue is that it’s not sutomaticly deactivated once you buy ir
MeanEYE@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Am kind of torn on this. To some games, this adds level of realism. Racing games having brand names on billboards makes it feel more real. Folks at RockStar did awesome job with faking ads on radio, billboards, etc. But not every company has the resources to reinvent the whole world. Then again, seeing ads in some other type of game. No thanks.
interceder270@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Have you considered how much you lower your standards so people richer than you can be even richer at your expense?
Might want to stop doing that.
GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Ah, my hard line stance of “never buy anything ubisoft” is still working out for me.
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ubisoft, epic, ea, Blizzard/Activision…
I wont say Bethesda because I’m hoping for another Doom or Quake.
MycoBro@lemmy.world 11 months ago
_EA is the fucking devil. They bought my favorite game, Ultima Online, and ruined it. _
Abnorc@lemm.ee 11 months ago
The way that Bethesda has handled Doom has been nothing short of excellent. Hopefully they continue to support Id however they need it to keep on making great games.
PlexSheep@feddit.de 11 months ago
What’s the problem with Epic Games, besides No Tux no Bux and anti cheat rootkits?
I mean those suck, but it has to be more than that right?
Aceticon@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I would a very happy person if most things in this World that reliably make one feel as “I’m doing the right thing” and frequently make one “Give oneself a pat on the back” required so little expense, time and effort as “never buy anything from Ubisoft”.
It’s like winning the “well done dude” lotery once every couple of months without spending a cent.
interceder270@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ah, my hardline stance of “don’t buy profitable products you can get for free” is still working out for me.
Snapz@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Always testing the line… This wasn’t a mistake. They know you’ll be upset, they are testing HOW upset and then they’ll make their decision.
MeanEYE@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Ubisoft doesn’t give a shit. Never did. They are the ones who added booster packs after certain time in game so you can progress at a normal pace instead if you pay them extra. Am actually surprised someone reacted this time since usually they are fiendishly defended by dedicated fans.
TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world 11 months ago
They don’t give a shit but if everyone rejects their bulshit, like that NFT nonsense, they will back off (and try again later)
kamen@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Something you’re paying for should be completely ad free, period.
soggy_kitty@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
I wish that’s how the world worked, unfortunately it’s not
Johanno@feddit.de 11 months ago
The World worked that way, but people accepted the new ad contained products they paid for.
People even think it is fine to buy a product you don’t own
eltrain123@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It does work like that. You vote with your dollars. If you buy these companies’ products, you confirm they made the right decision.
If enough people abandon their products, they change the model or die.
What you say you like and what your dollars say you like are 2 different things. The sooner people realize this the faster things will get improve. But, if people are unwilling to avoid buying products from bad companies, things will get worse. Welcome to capitalism.
kamen@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It would if everybody votes with their wallet.
elbarto777@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Unless it’s a billboard!
dandu3@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I pay for my phone and my phone and my internet access. What gives?
DahGangalang@infosec.pub 11 months ago
This, but unironically.
If I had the means to pirate my internet connection, I’d do it in a heart beat.
the_q@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Gamers continue to tell these companies that they’ll put up with anything while complaining online and continuing to purchase shitty games from shitty companies. Rinse and repeat.
This is 90% on consumers. Stop buying shit if you want change and I mean in any industry.
pyre@lemmy.world 11 months ago
this is what companies want you to think. it’s like expecting drivers to be sensible so that we can reduce deaths from traffic accidents. it’s not a solution. we have traffic lights, seat belts, all sorts of security systems and regulations on car manufacturers (though not nearly enough).
consumer protection doesn’t happen by telling everyone to be sensible. regulation is needed.
chakan2@lemmy.world 11 months ago
though not nearly enough)
Yes…there’s enough. There’s a reason a new car costs 30k. We don’t need radar, adaptive cruise, and fucking front facing cameras (yes, thats a real thing) standard.
I just want a heavy duty roll cage, a 200cc engine, and seat belts. All for 2k.
(The car safety standards are a sore point for me)
Emerald@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Stop buying shit if you want change and I mean in any industry.
so we should boycott every industry out there?
hushable@lemmy.world 11 months ago
yes
Jyek@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
90% on consumers? I don’t know I’d go that far… If a company is evil but provides a service people still desire, that doesn’t make the evil company being evil the fault of the consumers. Like saying gun control in America is resisted primarily by its citizens when we are well aware that company lobbying is mostly at fault and most citizens are actually for some amount of gun control.
bitwolf@lemmy.one 11 months ago
Gamers as a population really have to stop FOMO’ing into the newest games because their friends do.
Even if it’s blatantly obvious it’s going to be or is a bad game people still buy them because of the network effect.
Commiunism@lemmy.wtf 11 months ago
The death of the sun will arrive before gamers actually do a boycott that is successful, because boycotts (especially for popular franchises or products) don’t work. If you rally up 10,000 people for a boycott, it’s less than 1% of sales AAA studios get and 70% of the boycotters are still going to buy the game regardless.
No change is going to happen ever, so the best thing to do is to start ignoring the AAA gaming industry altogether on a personal level.
Buck@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Voting with your wallet doesn’t work. Nobody will call you to ask why you didn’t buy a product, and marketing will just come up with a bogus reason on why sales are poor.
Talking about it on social media helps a lot more.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The first time I saw Ubisoft doing this was actually kinda neat because it was done well.
It was Rainbow Six Vegas/Vegas 2 and the billboards and posters scattered around were real ads. I thought it was a clever way to improve immersion.
Moneo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Funny, cause nothing breaks immersion faster for me than product placement.
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Clever or not, you’re not paying to watch advertisements, you’re paying to play a game as a recreational activity.
Cowbee@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Enshittification infects all.
Alpha71@lemmy.world 11 months ago
And they will get away with it because nobody does what will really hurt Ubisoft, which is NOT buy the games. No. They will simply come on reddit or here and complain, and then throw their hands up and accept it when that fails to produce any results.
witx@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s why those who “jUsT pAy PReMiUm” are at fault. These companies are just pushing the line to see what sticks, and you’re paying for it
regdog@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I stopped buying Ubisoft games years ago. It was around that that time where they forced always-online mode on their single player games.
I stopped playing their games (literally) because I was sure from that point on the user experience is only going to get worse. I thing I was right in that decision.
seth@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Gaming has been following the shitty trends of video streaming companies for a while now. I bought RDR2 on the Steam sale to finally play through and immediately refunded it when I saw they force you to sign in with a Rockstar account. I don’t want any offline games where I have to sign in.
I remember putting a cartridge into a console and powering on to an immediate start screen. There shouldn’t be EULA or T&C prompts or inescapable splash screens on timers for any of these games. There shouldn’t be standalone studio launcher applicationa that take up nearly a GiB of hard drive. Nobody wants them, nobody is impressed by them, and it takes away from the fun. It seems I’m done with all Blizzard, Origin, and Rockstar games for good now, where in the past I would’ve gladly shelled out $$$ for deluxe and ultimate editions like a chump.
1984@lemmy.today 11 months ago
That’s enough for me to never buy any of their games ever again.
EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 11 months ago
How much fucking money do they need?
DrMango@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Fuck Ubisoft
Gruntyfish@lemmy.world 11 months ago
[Everyone] enraged at [any company] for injecting ads into the middle of [everything]
FoxFairline@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
They should be enraged about the rape apologists who are in charge of the company. But consumers forget fast when the shiny new thing is out.
TheBat@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Still playing Ubishit games
Lol
Kekzkrieger@feddit.de 11 months ago
When piracy becomes more convenient to actually play the game sail those ships boys
MeanEYE@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There are people who are not enraged at Ubisoft?
cyberpunk007@lemmy.world 11 months ago
What if we took cable tv… And combined it with gaming?
Fuck off with this shit. Micro transactions are bad enough
xenoclast@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Gamers continue to buy the games by publishers that do this and will continue to put up with it as they slowly boil like frogs.
5BC2E7@lemmy.world 11 months ago
disgusting. it doesn’t surprise me. publishers are continously testing how much their customers can bend over.
onlinepersona@programming.dev 11 months ago
Imagine buying Ubisoft games.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 11 months ago
The only ads I want in my video games are world appropriate ones. Like the biomechanical penis implant ad from Omikron: The Nomad Soul.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 11 months ago
If you buy a Ubisoft game in this day and age there is no way you don’t know what you are getting into and the kind of shitty company you are supporting, and you still support it, and its practices, by buying their shit.
So you have absolutely zero right to bitch, moan, and be upset about the very Ubisoft style shit that Ubisoft does.
Stop. Supporting. Shitty. Companies. That. Hate. Their. Own. Customers.
webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
Enshitification going so hard I wouldn’t even pirate it.
But who am i kidding, the pirated version will likely have this crap removed, better performance without denuvo and all exclusives unlocked. Yarrrr
fluckx@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Can we boycot the companies that do this already. I get the AC IP is nice, I’ve certainly enjoyed my fair share of their games.
But the ad industry is completely getting derailed. What’s next ? Watch a 15s promo video every time you want to open te fridge? Watch a promo video before you can open the door?
Have your walls randomly show you ads?
Stop buying their shit. Regardless of how decent the game is. Punish them for the predatory practices. Demand refunds.
But no. People will likely be outraged, and then next game angry and then the next game they’ll suck it all up and complain about the good all days.
#remindmein5years
dmonzel@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I always thought the cyberpunk genre was a warning, not a blueprint.
xantoxis@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Don’t Create the Torment Nexus etc etc
Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I can’t get into the genre, it’s too real to be fun
Jaysyn@kbin.social 11 months ago
Way ahead of you.
scops@reddthat.com 11 months ago
Yeah, unfortunately, it is hard for me to hurt their bottom line because I checked out of the series after Origins.
That said, I’ve never sought a refund on a digital copy of a game, but I wouldn’t hesitate if I paid full price for a game only to find out there were in game ads
kromem@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I used to be quite close to this topic professionally.
My advice to those involved was consistently to focus on making in-game advertising appear ‘diegetic’ as opposed to the low hanging fruit of inserting it like a sore thumb.
Had Ubisoft scattered a number of graffiti or town criers in Odyssey’s cities talking about visiting a foreign land for less money the next few days only, where the art direction looked and felt perfectly at home in the world itself and interacting with the hooks alerted users to the promotion details, this would have been way less disgusting to players.
You didn’t have players revolting when Cyberpunk’s 2.0 update suddenly had characters talking about Dogtown which then hooked into trying to upsell the DLC. It fit the world and was something that could be ignored or engaged with as desired.
GTA: Online’s phone calls hooking into paid or new content are another example of doing it better (though their frequency is tuned really poorly).
The problem is most publishers don’t want to spend the extra time and money to fit ads into the worlds players are in. Which is dumb, as testing a really terrible UX that players will revolt on and press will cover negatively is going to shoot in the foot an initiative that would have gone much smoother with a bit of elbow grease and respect for the players.
Especially with the increase in in-game commerce I expect that we will see a spike in in-game advertising over the next few years, and with advances in generative AI that might even end up being tailored to the in game world as well much more often.
But the reactivity of the audience here means that the publishers who do a good job on limiting the degree to which moving in that direction abuses the playerbase are going to end up much better off than the ones that think dumb shit like a popup ad in the game UI during play is a good idea.
dpkonofa@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Drink verification can to proceed.
NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There’s a blackmirror episode that touches on ads invading our lives like this
jandar_fett@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Black Mirror episodes coming true or already being true is hedging into “Simpsons did it!” Territory
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’m pretty certain that I read a comment like this back in 2010 to 2012 on Reddit. Hell it may have been on Slashdot or Digg back in 2008.
As you’ve said, the only way to stop this is for everyone to stop feeding the beast. The problem is that F2P works now in 2023 as a business model, and clearly worked back in 2010 as DDO, and SW:TOR are still chugging along.
I don’t think it is feasible to end these predatory practices unless one can manage to get every single government in the world to outlaw them. Good luck on that.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Well, for one I think we’ve played the sum total of what Assassin’s Creed has to offer, at this point. I haven’t seen Ubisoft bring anything much new or compelling to the table since… AC3? I think? I’ve been doing just fine without it for all these years.
IIRC there were some racing games that actually did show you real ads on billboards and pit walls and so forth, which were updated over the internet. Need For Speed: Carbon did this, I think. I’m certain there are already other similar examples, and you’ll probably find them in something published by EA.
I’m all for giving the finger to the megacorporate publishers who do this, though. I have got so many fuckin’ indie games in my Steam library still, many of which I haven’t played much or at all, a large portion of which are great, and all of which will give me something to do other than put up with what the predatory behavior du jour is (advertisements, subscriptions, lootboxes, battle passes, microtransactions, or whatever the fuck else).
MossyFeathers@pawb.social 11 months ago
Battlefield games also had billboards. Granted they were torn up, but they were advertisements. Tbh I’m okay with ads if they fit into the game. Have a game with a TV? I’m okay with ads getting inserted into the fake-TV programming so long as they’re in the style of the game. Have a game with billboards? Okay, but again, it needs to be in the style of the game. I’m willing to forgive some level of advertising in games, especially if they’re from smaller studios, they just need to be non-intrusive and fit the style of the game. I’m more forgiving if you’ve put the work and effort into making the ad look and feel like it’s part of the world. An example is if GTA VI had radio ads that were self-depricating and/or self-parodies of the real-world companies advertising in-game.
Mikey_donuts@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The NHL games used to show ads on the boards too. Assuming they still do.
pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Didn’t you guys have ads in the 20th century?
JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Haven’t bought an AC since the American revolution one, last thing I bought from them was watchdogs for $5 and it was dogshit so reinforced my no Ubishit rule
leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 11 months ago
I’ve been boycotting ubisoft, EA, blizzard, and the like for years. 🤷♂️
(I mean, technically I’ve been avoiding denuvo malware, microtransactions, always online DRM bullshit, and the like, plus bad and / or uninteresting games… but that’s effectively equivalent to boycotting those assholes.)