How To Make Sure I Uninstall Your Game On The Spot
Posted by Stropp on May 28, 2012… and never play it again.
This patent application (via GameInformer) by Sony subjects the player to one of the most vile forms of advertising I’ve seen yet.
While playing a game, the patent describes a racing game, but it could be any kind of game, the player is given an indication that the game is about to stop; the game then stops and an advertisment plays after which the game resumes perhaps rewinding a little before the interruption.
What kind of brain dead marketing moron came up with this idea?
I find it intrusive and annoying when an ad comes on during a tense scene while watching a TV show. Could you imagine how much more annoying it would be to be in the middle of a boss fight, or just about to cross the finishing line, or at any other point in the game and be interrupted to watch someone shill their latest product? How much worse would it be if it distracted you enough to lose?
As I said in the headline, this is a sure way to have me uninstall a game immediately, and never play it again. Hell, the disks would likely go straight in the bin.
Would you put up with this?
There is no way I would play a game that had this. This is one of the worst ideas I have ever seen! It will be a sad day for gaming if this catches on.
This is mind boggling, I can’t imagine a situation where I would ever see this as acceptable.
From what I’ve read about this, it’s a hardware implementation… so avoid Sony products (it would apply to DVD players, too) like upcoming playstation consoles. I’ve yet to own a playstation… it looks like I never will.
Whoa! Apply to DVDs too? So my Sony DVD player might interrupt the DVD I’m watching to play an ad?
Although, the difficulty with this is that the player would need to be connected in order to get the adverts. I don’t know too many reasons to connect a DVD player to the internet so this might not be as much a problem
Come to think of it, staying offline with the game console might prevent the ads from popping up too.
That is sad since I like my PS3 way more than my 360.
I’ve been hearing rumors that the next generation of consoles are going to be Always-online only so we might not have a choice…
Reading over the claims on Sony’s patent, one set does seem to apply to a software only implementation. So yeah, avoid all Sony games. As for online only, they’ll stuff the game CD with default ads for their own (and possibly other’s, if they’re paid to do so) products for display offline… you KNOW they’re too greedy to pass up that opportunity.
The broader claims aren’t limited to games; a DVD is essentially a program that plays a video stream on a device. I don’t know if the functions available in current dvd hardware/software would support this, but I suspect it’s possible. So read reviews before buying Sony Pictures movie dvds…
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