The New Xbox Experience gives Xbox 360 owners a cornucopia of new functionality for their game console, like Netflix streaming and HDD game installation -- but also a hell of a lot of unavoidable, intrusive advertising. As you might expect, that's not by accident -- but one major reason for the ads, according to Microsoft marketer Shawn McMichael, is because we gamers are madly in love with the idea.
At a panel on game networks and social gaming at the 2009 CES Game Power Conference, McMichael told the audience that with NXE, "advertising wasn't an afterthought -- it was built as part of the core experience going forward.""Consumers love it," he said, citing how the advergame "Doritos: Dash of Destruction" racked up "millions and millions of downloads" -- more than any other Xbox LIVE Arcade game in the last four years -- and how on average, their advertising campaigns receive 10 times the clickthrough rate expected on the internet.
Though McMichael said that it was important to have multiple sources of revenue for online networks, he called advertising "the most profitable piece of the revenue stream."
January 7th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
“Doritos: Dash of Destruction” racked up “millions and millions of downloads” — more than any other Xbox LIVE Arcade game in the last four years
I think that has more to do with the fact that Dash of Destruction was free to download (as well as being a half-decent game, unlike its counterpart Yaris).
January 7th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
No, it became the most downloaded game on XBLA because people love advertisements.
Didn't you even READ what Microsoft told you to think? Sheesh!
January 8th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
"Consumers Love It"
Yeah right. I hate advertisement. Is like saying the people that surf the web like pop up adds and expanding banners and having to avoid mouse over bull crap just to read a article.
Give me a break M$. Get over yourself. It's shocking that they have that much advertisement and STILL charge it's users to play online.
At least with PSN you are not bombarded with Advertisement you don't want. The only times are in HOME (Tastely done) and in the Store. They show you the new items and most popular stuff. That's it.