Switch on your Xbox 360 and you may find that the Xbox Live subscription you’re already paying for has been further subsidized by all-moving, all-talking ads — full on commercials that have been smuggled onto your dashboard and will make noise at you whenever you scroll past them. You might have seen them in the past, at least for MS’ own stuff, but it seems that people are starting to notice them far more.
We’ve been assured by the digital media experts at IPG that these ads won’t be as intrusive as feared, and that the Silverlight-powered ads are designed to “fit right in with the interface,” meaning that they’ll be individual scrolling windows within the rest of the NXE. So, no annoying pop-ups or anything … for the time being.
Intriguingly, IPG also believes that the entire New Xbox Experience was, in part, designed as a way of bringing more adverts to Xbox Live. IPG has realized that the NXE windows “just so happen to be IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) standard sizes”. Well, how about that for a coincidence?
Hit the jump for a video of one of these ads in motion. Meanwhile, I’m going to continue wondering exactly what my Xbox Live Gold subscription is paying for, and wonder why the PlayStation Network has remained ad-free and subscription free for the past three years.
Oh wait, I remember, I’m just paying for the sake of it, right Microsoft?
