Last night, we talked about WipEout HD's latest patch, which included a few nasty surprises for those wanting to play the new "Fury" content. In-game ads had been smuggled onto the game, which ordinarily wouldn't be a problem -- that is, until it came to light that the ads were increasing loading times, forcing the game to slow down so that paying customers could be marketed to.
While a few people claimed this wasn't the case and that I was just a dirty biased liar with all the fat bias making biased mountains out of biased molehills, it seems that one entity agrees with me that these ads were not acceptable -- Sony itself. The platform holder has actually done something decent for a change, and removed the offending ad that was causing loading times to double.
"The ad has been removed from WipEout HD and we are investigating the situation to ensure that any in-game advertising does not affect gameplay," said a Sony spokesman.
Wow, I'm actually impressed. No advert should ever affect gameplay, and it's great to see that Sony agrees and would actually listen to irate consumers on this count. That said, this nonsense with WipEout HD could be a grim harbinger of the marketing rape coming our way in future.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
9:20 AM on 08.04.2009
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i think they felt the fire
But it is nice to see that some devs actually pay attention to the message boards.
However I failed to see the point of your previous entry, I did not realise that the adverts themselves were increasing load times and I apologise for sounding like a self-righteous dick hole.
It still is nice to see that Sony is willing to listen to consumer comlaints still.
Errr, WipEout HD is an amazing game and I feel sorry for you if you won't give it a shot.
The game is £13 and has more features then some full price games!
lol, that was sarcasm.
Couldn't agree more. You can put as many ads in my games as you want, so long as it doesn't take away from the game itself. As soon as it becomes noticeably detrimental to the experience, shenanigans must be called.
sad
Surely when you buy a product, they can't make detrimental changes to that product AFTER you've bought it? Right?
I mean, I paid that money for Fight Night in the state it was in last week, now the game is smothered with adverts and if it's as bad as it sounds, to me, it's not going to be worth what I paid for it! So, uh EA, I want my fucking money back!
It's like buying a car then a week later the car makers coming to your house in the night and plastering your new car with their adverts - it's not fucking on! That's your's, you've bought it as it is, in game's it's as the reveiwers said it was and then AFTER you've paid they've fucking changed it for the worse.
i mean adding such a detrimental aspect of the game AFTER REVIEWERS WROTE THEIR REVIEWS is fucking wrong.
This is not fucking on. Our hobby has been fucking hijacked by greedy capitalist advert-throat-ramming cocksuckers.
Intrusive ads like this really piss me off. I have a (healthy) disdain for advertising and the excesses of consumer capitalism in general, and I don't want the bad aspects of the system to invade the gaming medium, which I love. I really hope companies responsible for placing advertising in games take care to do it in a way that's not intrusive. If they loose more money from people not buying their products than they make from the advertisers, this shit will stop. Please don't support companies that make you pay for them to try to sell you crap (that you don't need) while making your gaming experiences shitty.
this industry is fuct. capitalism here we come (and after its failed).
Ooo, what about raid bug spray for gears of war?
What boycott?!
A few insignificant gamers complaining in a comments section?! How is that a Boycott... I don't know about you, but after I read the article I jumped straight on my PS3 to play some WipEout HD multiplayer!
The adverts only went up in the past couple of days so I'm it was just an unforeseen problem that as soon as Sony saw it they started to fix it.
Fuck, I bet most of you up in arms like babies don't even own Wipeout HD.
You don't have to own Wipeout HD to be upset by this style of advertising; if people don't respond companies will think it's ok to do things like this.
Also, those damn ads WERE being "shoved down my throat", the loading time went from under 10 sec to 20 JUST because they wanted people to watch the ad in its entirety, and in a game those people spent $30 dollars on.
And while I did notice the load times were a bit longer during the advertisement sections, (I don't know about totally doubling the time unless you comparing times for restarted races since those load really quickly), the load times in this game are still so quick compared to most games that it's really not a big deal.
And that's my biggest problem here. It's not a big deal. Calling for a boycott on Wipeout HD due to this ad was a completely ridiculous response.
Again, I'm glad they're gone, but seriously. Let's have a little control here. We don't need to max out our Internet Nerd Rage every time ANYTHING even slightly offends us. Let's save it for something more worthwhile.
BTW, I really didn't appreciate all the Snickers adverts in the Madden 2010 demo either.
For a vehicle that doesn't exist. Come On Sony WTF???!!!
Ads on the 360 dashboard don't delay anything. Nor do they tarnish a games experience.
that's not what all of my friends with 360s say.
At that point I will be even more selective of what I buy. In other words ads=no game for me. I have plenty.
Your so called "friends" with 360s are full of shit then. It takes nothing more than a flick of the joystick to skip over an ad. What was tried in Wipeout was ridiculous. If you disagree you're either a fanboy, or a fucking retard.
Did you see the delay from the ads? It's not load time, it's forcing you to watch the whole ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX4f9zts6JM
If they can't cover development costs and they're honest about it, either charge more or offer a version with no ads that costs more.
WipEout XL/2027 had Red Bull ads which fit with the game and did not affect gameplay. If they put effort into it and used appropriate companies, it could work well, but this does not work well.
I'm surprised there are so many people willing to put up with ads on products they've paid for. Why allow companies to pull crap like this, especially after people have already bought the product. Maybe it'd be ok for them to disable a feature and say, well, you have to pay now to get that feature back.
"Your so called "friends" with 360s are full of shit then. It takes nothing more than a flick of the joystick to skip over an ad.
What was tried in Wipeout was ridiculous. If you disagree you're either a fanboy, or a fucking retard."
whoa come down bud. I never said what they tried with WipeOut Fury wasn't ridiculous. If you gonna start putting word in my mouth then your just gonna wind up looking like an idiot. Hell, I didn`t even put in MY opinion on Wipeout Fury. I was just saying the my buddies with 360s find it annoying to have to deal with ads in the first place. Maybe you don't but your not everyone. The way you jumped up to defend you console there made you look like a fanboy. Now I`m gonna go buy the game, after that maybe then you can yell at me for something else I didn`t say. Maybe next time you`ll read and UNDERSTAND comments before you go "ZOMG STEEL BROTHA MOAR 360 BIAS ZOMG"
Also, this is a blatant example of Jim's pro-Sony bias.