Slashdot Mirror
Ad Viewing Required For Free Zune HD Games
UnknowingFool writes "In releasing the Zune HD, Microsoft decided not to open up software development on the new Zune to third parties yet. Today, Microsoft released a handful of free games for the Zune HD: Texas hold 'em, Sudoku, Space Battle 3, Shell Game, Of the Future, Hexic, Goo Splat and Chess, as well as calculator and weather apps. Users, however, are required to view an ad (up to 30 seconds in length) while the game starts up. While ad-supported free games are also on other platforms, like the iPhone, the difference here is that those iPhone games are from third parties and not from Apple."
Reader Rock3t notes related news that the Zune HD will be getting 3D games.
Not really a surprise. On the old MSN gaming network they had them, and there are permanent ones in the MSN client, and the games started over the client had them too. ;)
Microsoft have to make their money somehow, and it's not looking like it's going to be through their software
A Zune? Never heard of it. Oh it's that brown turd you can only buy in the US and Canada?
Sure Microsoft, that IS a good idea! Ad-supported native software, straight from the mothership. Nothing gives a better impression than a cheapskate company trying to squeeze an extra buck off trivial software! Next time, require 3 subscriptions in spam lists for your notepad equivalent-du-jour, that'll bring in some extra cash!
This is just like those view ads to get paid sites - except no one is going to get paid! Except for Microsoft, that is-
I think they've just taken consumer exploitation to the next level.
As the iPod Touch and iPhone turn into gaming devices and their marketshare appears to soar ever higher the response from Microsoft is somewhat strangely to stay behind the curve. "Will be getting 3D games"? Unlike the iPhone/Touch which already have them you mean? No 3rd party development... like the iPhone had at launch.
Sometimes I get the feeling that Microsoft aren't really trying here, the question is when they clearly aren't trying to out innovate why are they continuing to spend money in this space? Is it purely because they "must" compete with Apple? It feels as if their product meetings go
MS PM: What does the current set of Apple products do
MS Marketroid: Well they have apps
MS PM: 3rd party apps?
MS Marketroid: No that is banned
So they then spend 18 months developing the product at which place they are closing the gate against a horse who is already 20 miles down the road.
The ad-viewing is about as 'required' as Kanye West is humble. What you REALLY have to be afraid of is when they start quizzing you on the contents of the ad in order for you to play.
What does HD stand for in this context? Does it really mean high definition when they're putting out games like poker, chess, and sudoku, does it? WTF do you need high definition for that - prettier backs on the poker cards?
You haven't been paying attention, really, have you? :) They're not opening up their app store for 3rd party software. I believe this was mentioned on /. 1 or 2 days ago, maybe. Or rather when asked they said something like "we might in the case that there is a situation where it is desirable to possibly have an opportunity like this that we may or may not perhaps consider blablablabla..." Which essentially meant "Nope", or else they would've just said so.
Hope I remember correctly now... :)
Here's the secret to immortality:
Maybe I spend too much time on the wrong kind of websites, but I don't even want to know what that game is about!
Oh no... it's the future.
There is no way any company can so consistently get things just a bit wrong every single time.
You got to wonder what the hell the person who came up with this was thinking.
Dev1: "Well we can't do squirting again."
Dev2: "And brown has be done too."
Dev3: "I know, we give them ADDS for crappy games that we offered for free with every windows version and are available everywhere for free!
Dev1 and Dev2: "Wow! They don't call you Dev3 for nothing!"
Yes, Microsoft in fact spent countless amounts of money and time opening up XNA development for the Zune HD, just to not allow XNA development for the Zune HD. In fact, they figured, "Hey let's waste fuck loads of cash doing something completely and utterly pointless for no reason whatsoever because it's not like we're a business in a recession where staff cuts are being made and departments need to justify their existence by doing something useful is it? Let's create Zune HD development tools even though we're not going to allow 3rd party apps on the app store!" -
http://www.develop-online.net/news/32857/XNA-Game-Studio-31-adds-Zune-HD-support
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/a177633/xna-development-now-available-on-zune-hd.html
But then, you did read it on Slashdot so obviously you must be right, it must be true.
Developers need to be paid. As much as we want it, it is highly unlikely that all software in the world will be developed in the form of open source projects.
While open source projects will undoubtedly continue, the paid software and software that contains ads will also always be there...
Youtube also has ads at the start of the movies. I've already adopted a strategy to have my mouse of the volume control as soon as a movie starts.
~I prefer creative advertisers who push their message into my brain to voluntarily taking the message in me. In other words: I prefer ad-rape to ad-love~
Zune? What is a Zune?
A lot of games on portable devices are something you might play for a few minutes to pass the time waiting for a bus, etc. If you have to wait 30 seconds for a game to start, then that's a sizeable percentage of the playing time which is ridiculous. It's even more annoying than all those trailers/adverts/previews/etc. you have to sit through at the cinema or the film preview you used to be forced to sit through on certain DVDs. And once you've seen the ad once, you're not going to watch it again for 30 seconds. If you have to advertise, put up an advertising splash screen for a few seconds with the option of the user pushing a button to exit the screen sooner.
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Anyone remember when Sun suddenly added Yahoo toolbar, on by default btw, to the main installers and later even the upgrade installers of Java? When I first saw that, I had a suspicious that either someone at Sun made a very bad marketing decision, or things were not going well on the Sun balance sheets. Turned out to be the latter. Could Microsoft be showing the first signs of financial desperation with this stunt, or is this just someone's stupid move?
I don't really see the problem with this to be honest: If you don't like it, don't download/play those games.
I'd rather have a selection of free games available, than none at all.
Having ads in front of it is only logical for them to make some money out of it.
Microsoft has been doing the same with Live-Messenger for quite some time: If you start up a webcamchat, you first get to see an ad for about 20 seconds.
I got very annoyed by this, so since then I've been doing my (webcam)chats through Skype. It's all about having the choice.
When you shoot a mime, do you use a silencer?
It's news worthy because the Zune HD just recently released, comes with a marketplace not unlike the Apple App Store. Then the news came that the SDK wouldn't be available to the general public, only to a choice few 3rd parties. Then the news came that Microsoft would release all their apps for free. And now this, the catch comes along. Now we know why the marketplace is not like the App Store, because they plan to shove advertising down your throat.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
One of things in the iTunes app store that is really getting on my nerves, is developer adding ads after the game is released. The progression goes: release a free game, wait until it is in the top 25 or gets popular, then create an update that includes ads.
Why is this annoying? Well, suddenly you have add boxes over key game elements, the game starts up slowly while ad loads (i.e. the much watch ad), or new start or splash pages appear that include the ads. Also, since everyone appears to use the same few ad networks, I get the same ads on every application. I feel like I got hit with some kind of bait and switch. I'll also note, that the update's description never mentions the new and exciting ad feature.
I started developing apps for the iPhone so I can understand the desire to be paid for your work. So, please think about your revenue model (and minimize the impact to players if you have ads) before your first release or better yet just sell it at a fair price. I will buy a good game. I will delete games that become unplayable and rank accordingly.
I love the sound of distortion in the morning -- webcommando
"The door refused to open. It said, 'Five cents, please.'
He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. 'I'll pay you tomorrow,' he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. 'What I pay you,' he informed it, 'is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you.'
'I think otherwise,' the door said. 'Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.'
In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.
'You discover I'm right,' the door said. It sounded smug.
From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt's money-gulping door.
'I'll sue you,' the door said as the first screw fell out.
Joe Chip said, 'I've never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live with it.'"
("Ubik", Philip K Dick)
How long until we'll be begging our Zunes to let us use our software ?
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Please, somebody just kill the Zune. It's embarrassing to watch this projects continued failures.
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
did my mod wrong oops
Calm down - you have the choice download the games, I don't really think that counts as being shoved down your throat.
I know that I've never seen a big market for video adaptors for other hand-held gaming platforms.
By "video adaptors for other hand-held gaming platforms" are you including Super Game Boy and Game Boy Player? These take a different approach, adding a slot for a handheld's game cartridges to a console.
As for adapters that connect to the handheld system itself, Nintendo never made one to sell to the public. (There were a couple Game Boy systems with video output for demo kiosks in stores, and there was IS-NITRO-CAPTURE for authorized developers and the mainstream gaming press, but the general public never got these.) Sega's Game Gear and Atari's Lynx didn't have them either. Sony made one for the PSP-2000 that required a TV with 480p component inputs. This flopped because a lot of TVs at the time were still CRTs that could not display 480p video. As far as I know, the only major handheld with a widely available composite cable is PSP-3000. (I'm not counting V.Smile and other edutainment-only systems as major.)
Tell that to all the early Zune HD buyers that were promised free games and apps on the Zune Marketplace and that just now discovered this or will in the future.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
These games are ports of old Zune games that also had ads at the beginning. It's no surprise that the new versions have ads too. I see this as a sort of "legacy" artifact, a leftover from the way things used to work. There's no reason to believe that future games will have poorly placed ads like this. In fact there's no reason to believe that future games will have ads at all.
I've got an old brown zune and there's been an ad before the start of the games ever since they introduced them. The article doesn't make it clear if the ads on the zunehd are videos or if they are static images like on my old zune. The games on my old zune have been "brought to me by Lips" ever since the first time I played one of the games. That the "ad" hasn't changed in more than a year tells me that they aren't having much luck in selling these ads.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
I chuckled when I had to skip an ad when trying to read the PC World article
Trying to play Chess on a Zune:
http://vimeo.com/6612641
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
I'm not a huge EA fan but this is the perfect time for MS to copy them. Instead of a thirty second add they should have poker sponsored by Hoyle and use cards with their logo on them. The weather program can be "brought to you by the Weather Channel" or something. There are ways to advertise while minimizing the amount it pisses people off.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
By "not opening up software development" do you mean "they updated XNA to support the Zune HD"? http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/archive/2009/09/15/xna-game-studio-3-1-zune-extensions.aspx
If you mean an App Store SDK, not sure what that is, but I'd bet MS will host 3rd-party apps soon.
If you mean a development SDK, they've already released one:
http://blogs.msdn.com/xna/archive/2009/09/15/xna-game-studio-3-1-zune-extensions.aspx
Look for SDK support for NVidia graphics soon.
I agree with this guy, Zune game programming could be a great educational platform:
http://blogs.msdn.com/alfredth/archive/2009/09/16/zune-hd-as-a-programming-teaching-platform.aspx.
If you teach kids to write Zune games, you're teaching them how to write xbox and windows games too.
Yes, Microsoft in fact spent countless amounts of money and time opening up XNA development for the Zune HD, just to not allow XNA development for the Zune HD.
And MS research published papers against DRM and excessive copyright - this is MS, the right hand has no clue what the left is doing. Hell, the right hand probably has no clue what the right ring finger is doing.
Windows Vista is the Zune of operating systems. Steve Ballmer, who has little technical knowledge, is the Zune of technology company managers.
It is not just games that have ads. According to Ars Technica, launching core apps like Calculator takes 9 seconds with ads, and launching Weather takes 8 seconds with ads. Videos in the Ars article ...
"The first batch of apps for the Zune HD can now be freely downloaded from Microsoft, and they come with an unexpected "present": static and video ads that play during launch."
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/zune-hd-apps-are-here-complete-with-pre-roll-ads.ars
.. partially because I couldn't really afford it in the first place, but mostly because for such a sleek, sexy device with a beautiful screen and interface, I found it hampered by the most annoying software package in recent history.
I might buy another one, really, I might, but the iPhone holds more appeal for both music and mobile uses.
MS definitely doesn't have it where the Apps are concerned; the Space Game visually blew me away (what a SCREEN) but sucked so much ass I played it for all of two minutes. Large software companies don't seem to understand that while you can build something visually spectacular, one lives and dies by the gameplay. Watching car ads was pretty retarded, especially since the device could have been using the playback time to load the app, but clearly does not.