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Microsoft Integrating Xbox One Advertising With Kinect To Profile Users For Ads
MojoKid writes "When Microsoft reversed its Xbox One DRM policies a few weeks back, there was momentary hope that the company has listened to its customers and understood the features they were asking for. Granted, this was brief. However, with Mattrick gone, there was some hope that maybe the company would reintroduce plans like Family Sharing and put the console back on track. Apparently not. Microsoft's big new feature with Kinect? Advertising. Microsoft plans to use Kinect to make advertisements even more engaging than their current counterparts. In the future, Kinect may offer you a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' style narrative in which you speak commands or give orders to an ad as it's playing to change the final outcome. The other way Microsoft wants to use Kinect is to monitor what's going on in the living room to serve you group-appropriate content, rather than resorting to the plain old method of bombarding you with non-interactive advertising for things you don't care about. Microsoft will likely learn that telling gamers that the Xbox One is an ad-centric experience and attempting to spin it like a positive doesn't actually work."
Sweet!
Slimfast and match.com is gonna be appearing on most I bet.
And before anyone claims Sony doesn't do this already, you've already got little promotional boxes and ads after you've booted up and automatically logged into your PSN on your PS3.
blink blink
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Will not buy.
Wow, I actually want the new xbox less than I want a Wii U now...
From a recent pastebin post allegedly from a Microsoft person, the DRM scheme appears to be actually better for consumers. How often are people screwed by selling their used games for pennies on the dollar? The XBOX One scheme actually does two things: it provides consumer protection in the used game market by elevating prices and it appears to also provide minimal (and nominal) revenue for publishers when a game is resold.
This model seems to work on Steam and TODAY nobody is bad-mouthing Steam after over a decade of DRM-encumbered operation.
Kriston
Why are there even ads on the Xbox? After all you've:
A) Bought the console
B) Bought some games (presumably)
C) Quite possibly bought a gold membership
Now, I can understand something like when you go to the store to have maybe a little promo of "what's new" but beyond that, ads are unacceptable.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
When I want a game console, what I actually want are advertisements! And the Xbox One offers interactive advertisements, no less! Sure, you could just play games to get your fill of interactive content, but why play games when you could watch ads? Who plays games, anyway? Certainly not people who buy the Xbox One; they'll be too busy with ads.
GO FUCK YOURSELVES MICROSOFT.
I need to patent game controller technology that reads your finger prints to sell your highly personalized data to anyone.
I'll say it again:
The primary purpose of the XBox One is to be a platform for selling ads. On the one hand, publishers no longer need to solicit for static advertising in games, now they can have Microsoft be the entire advertising platform. It's like embedding a Google ad on your blog and collecting the revenue, only now on a HUGE scale. On the other hand, no longer do advertisers need to pay a ton for static ads on pre-releae titles, hoping that the ad retains enough relevance to be beneficial to their business. Publishers win, Microsoft wins, and advertisers win. Welcome to the future!
Kinect is all about generating advertising hints. It just is. There's no other sane reason why it supposedly cannot be turned off. It's there to collect hints on your environment, feed them to the Bing ad platform, and generate in-game ads as a result.
The always-on, regularly dial-home connectivity scheme was all about exchanging advertising hints for ads. Microsoft can capture advertisers by guaranteeing nearly real-time freshness of their advertising.
And lastly, the "co-process in the cloud" is all about advertising. Polygons aren't going to be rendered in the cloud, ad textures are. Turn that off and I bet there will be a lot of empty textures in just about every XB1 game that comes out, from AAA titles to $5 throw-aways.
Microsoft is selling you to the advertisers. It's just as simple as that.
Only old people use Bing. And only then because likely they confused it with Bingo.
they are integrating ads in the coming win8.1 update too. i don't follow ms news much but i read somewhere that when you use the search function in 8.1 to launch something it will feature ads also. Is that true?
So will I have to run in place for ten seconds to skip a weight loss ad and play my game?
Any bets on how much Microsoft got for giving the NSA a backdoor into the Kinect cameras?
It's all about the camera. The one in your living-room. Considering who Microsoft is working with these days, do you really want a camera in your living-room?
I know this is a feature all of us gamers have been waiting for years for.
Forget about occulous and all that crap give me targeted advertisements. I can't wait until my girlfriend walks by and my Xbox just streams non stop hooker ads and date services my demo loves so much.
Meet Mark Penn http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/technology/microsoft-battles-google-by-hiring-political-brawler-mark-penn.html?_r=1& This *cough* shitslinger of joys like scroogled is also in charge of include a blind taste test, Coke-versus-Pepsi style, of search results from Google and Microsoft’s Bing.
Mr. Penn was put in charge of innocently titled “strategic and special projects” its nice that his work bulldozing enemies of the Clintons is now but to work slinging shit at Google.
Ironically this is another article about Bing being shoved down peoples throats in another Duopoly rather than competing on old fashioned things like competition. Perhaps Microsoft Time and Money would be spent serving its hostages.
In Soviet Russia Bing searches you!
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
As if every government agency reading your stuff is not bad enough. The NSA can now watch what your doing in the living room. ..... will have to create cardboard cut outs to fool them into thinking I have the perfect family!
Yeah, that really isn't going to work. I mean, the only things that will be said to the screen will be a variety of invitations to sexual acts or to vacate.
Me: Hey Bob, did you hear about Kim Gong Eel's new rocket? It has a long tube with two balls attached for the explosives...
Bob: Wow really!? That sounds pretty neat, how does it.... whoah wait, why is your tv playing porn videos now?
Me: Oh don't worry about that, it's the new xbox connect one serving us ads... silly thing!
-- stoops
Why are there even ads on the Xbox? After all you've:
A) Bought the console
B) Bought some games (presumably)
C) Quite possibly bought a gold membership
Now, I can understand something like when you go to the store to have maybe a little promo of "what's new" but beyond that, ads are unacceptable.
Except you don't buy anything anymore you don't own your xbox...games...service you license them. Suck it up or by an alternative product of which there is many. I have bought an OuYa.
Just one more reason to not buy the console. It's almost like Microsoft begrudges the fact that they're selling a game console and would rather just sell an ad-delivery mechanism. A VERY expensive one, at that.
If I get a game where I'm allowed to strange those stupid bone-eating people, I'll fucking buy whatever crap they have to sell to me, other than their stank-ass Chicken.
I do have standards.
Also let me dropkick those annoying Cellphone kids. Or at least the adult.
I mean, after the novelty wears off and you get some stupid ad for adult diapers so you never have to get off the couch again for the 158th time, will it understand the command to go fuck itself and just skip to the end or will it annoy you yet again with having to wait....and say a word.....then wait....then say another word....and force negative engagement until users hate the console far more than they hate the advertisers?
Fucking brilliant MS. Fucking Brilliant. If nothing else manages to kill the Xbox console, this will.
This model seems to work on Steam and TODAY nobody is bad-mouthing Steam after over a decade of DRM-encumbered operation.
I am against DRM on steam(and am far from being alone)...and many include myself bad mouth it. I would rather all my games were DRM free. I buy from steam because they are *cheap*...in my mind disposable, because I am prepared to pay less money from a game I license instead of own(yes I am playing hard and fast with English what of it).
The difference is DRM on the xbox is that games are $60...and come on physical media.
The bottom line is this has nothing to do with the article in question, which is about spying on customers and shovelling targeted ads down their throats, on a device costing more than the opposition who don't.
I only hope this piece of shit comes with a free vasectomy, cause any idiot that buys one SHOULD NOT reproduce. Even on accident!
This is perhaps the most negative publicity that I've seen for a console before it even came out. Even the failures like the 3DO had great publicity (the 3DO was named Time's 'product of the year')
Has there been -anything- positive that has come out of the Xbox One's pre-launch that hasn't just been damage control?
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
No thanks, Ballmer.
PS4 preordered.
Fuck that shit.
Here's the new screen layout:
http://codinghorror.typepad.com/.a/6a0120a85dcdae970b0120a86dd2e5970b-pi
To some degree we are getting there (it's worse on the XBox 360):
http://cdn-static.zdnet.com/i/r/story/70/00/002993/original/w8rtm-windows-8-start-620x.jpg?hash=MwZ2ZmL2AQ
And Mike Judge is a god in my mind: Idiocracy, Office Space (I wore a suit for a few years early on) and Beavis and Butthead.
Anyway, I have to get back to Aww my Balls. Stop interrupting me. You broke my apartment.
BlameBillCosby.com
Looking at a still photo of the XBox One screen just made me realize... it finally dawned on me where Microsoft got the idea for the start screen tiles on XBox and Windows 8.
It's the Wii. All they've done is let you have some of the boxes be bigger than the others - but it's basically the Wii's interface that Nintendo released in 2006.
Even the ads. The Wii used the boxes for the Shop to advertise stuff you could buy.
#DeleteChrome
I can only imagine how much fun the parsing team is going to have testing all the likely responses:
* fuck off
* seriously, eat a dick MS
* get this fucking ad off my TV
* wtf I paid for this piece of shit and now it's spamming me with fucking ads
* hang on, let me get my sledgehammer
* NO CARRIER - Kinect signal lost
If I had the choice between a game system that served up ads by watching me while I was playing , vs dipping my legs, covered in hot sauce, into a pool of starving piranhas... I'd take my chances with the fish.
Farnsworth: "Shut up friends! My internet browser heard us saying the word Fry and it found a movie about Philip J. Fry for us. It also opened my calendar to Friday and ordered me some french fries."
Kinect> Posture detected: hunched
message: "Dear Product, how about a nice gallon of doublechockolate ice cream? Now only 4.99 with free delivery!"
Kinect> Event detected: spill
message: "Dear Product, get a new couch today! Now available in <matching color>!"
For $500+$60/yr +$65/game + $??? for all the peripherals over the years I DO NOT WANT MOTHER FUCKING ADVERTISING... PERIOD.
Love our xbox with Kinect. If this is true will switch to something more consumer friendly.
Microsoft's Skype, has a backdoor for the NSA to do stuff like live surveillance. This came out in the PRISM/CHESS documents.
So your XBox with its dual Kinect cameras sitting on the TV, and its always-on connections to the Internet could well also have an NSA back door to it, like Skype does.
Also from the Blackhat presentation, Skype is obfuscated code and may contain back doors beyond surveillance of calls, e.g. maybe they can turn mic/camera on remotely:
https://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-europe-06/bh-eu-06-biondi/bh-eu-06-biondi-up.pdf
It's all very 1984 telescreen
Kinect may offer you a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' style narrative in which you speak commands or give orders to an ad as its playing to change the final outcome.
User: Shut the fuck up
Ad: But
User: Fuck off
Do they really think we as a society love ads or some shit? Seriousely thats why Adblock plus is so freaking popular nowadays on browsers as it is because if it wasn't the webs a pretty messed up place even more so.
They play adverts, they monitor the kinect camera, and they can see which ads have an effect and are watched. XBox is an ads mans wet dream. Never mind that its a customers nightmare.
Also the possibilities for profit are endless:
Suppose you are in the UK and have an XBox with Kinect. NSA can legally spy on Brits, so it buys spy time on XBox Kinects to watch a target. Turns on the camera, gets its surveillance data and hey presto, leverage. Maybe a politicians family is in, the son is smoking pot, that's paydirt and you as customer brought the surveillance camera into your own home and wired it up yourself and even pay for the connection to the NSA!
Would Microsoft sell them access? Well it provided live Skype taps, message+voice+video taps on Skype. And Skype must have some business model we can't see to justify its $7 billion price. So yeh, damn right!
Yup. MS said so themselves.
Xbox One built for ads from the ground up
Need I say more?
Just simply WTF!
I used Bing for about six months a couple years ago because I thought it might offer more privacy than Google but with the recent NSA revelations that has been disproven.
I thought I would wait till next year to buy an Xbox One and see how it does. I really have no reason to anymore... too many moral tradeoffs. I see myself returning to PC gaming once the Xbox 360 dies off.
I usually use a site as a landing page and reflexively go to my intended site (email, calendar, etc) from there, or I'm on some other site with links out. Sometimes, as soon as I click a link to where I want to go, I notice an ad on the originating page for something I actually might be interested in. But when I go back to that page, I rarely can get a repeat performance of the original ad; surprisingly I seem to get a cycle of the about a half dozen others, but rarely including the first. There should be some way to force an affinity between ads and the back button. After all, I'm not likely to bounce on the refresh button just to see what different ads come up, but it is possible that I might use the back button to get back to something I was interested in.
Some see the vessel as half full; others see it as half-empty; We pour it out on the floor and laugh
Why does my Xbone keep serving me ads for lotion and tissues? Surely it can see I already have plenty at hand.
Where's the source for this story? I just see a bunch of bold claims with nothing to back them up.
Based on comments from Microsoft, supposedly the Kinect can see where the blood is going in your body, if your hands were hot etc. (i.e. see in infrared wavelengths in addition to visual) via "active infrared". This would also mean it would be able to look through (to an extent) light clothing. How the bozo's at the top of Microsoft thought this was a good idea is hard to fathom - as this will blow up in their faces (another thing, yet again).
it was decided that an always-online mandatory webcam was the new way forward.
The Xbox One recognizes your face. It knows if you're watching. They're in a position to insist that you watch the ads. Leave during an ad, and everything pauses until you get back to finish watching the ad.
"It sees you when you're sleeping. It knows when you're awake. It knows if you've been bad or good."
So we've kept the kinect on for 24/7 and have determined that 90% of our customer base have something in common.
When they stop playing video games, they immediately start watching porn. We've determined that rather than implementing our DRM strategies, were we to start selling subscriptions to a lotion delivery service, we could make BILLIONS.
MSFT marketing department.
Let's get this straight, for those of you still too thick to understand what Microsoft is doing.
- the console refuses to function UNLESS the Kinect sensor system is fully operational
- attempts to cover the Kinect camera lenses or point Kinect at a wall cause the console to immediately pester the user to 'recalibrate' Kinect
- Microsoft insists that every app and game uses Kinect input to a certain degree, even if this means an optional input mechanism for menu screens. There are ZERO games and apps that will completely ignore Kinect functionality.
- Kinect sensors are operating ALL the time (no user disable, which is why you can NEVER use the console if Kinect is unplugged).
- The console dedicates 2 CPU cores (from 8), a significant chunk of dedicated hardware processing functionality on the GPU/DSP side, a significant amount of the RAM, and a large portion of the HDD for the exclusive use of the Kinect system. Not even a AAA game can access this set-aside hardware for its own use- Kinect is always able to run at full potential no matter what game is running.
- Kinect constantly monitors each person that enters (or leaves) the room, and stores a full face photo of each person. This data is uploaded to servers whenever the console connects to the Internet. Remote servers can use the full face photo, combined with the known address of the console, to make a hugely accurate informed 'guess' as to the identity of the person.
- The Xbox One can be remotely made to stream video and sound from Kinect (of programmable quality/bandwidth) by any authorised remote server. For instance, every online Xbox One appears on an NSA list, and NSA personnel can tell any of these consoles to begin (within tens of milliseconds) streaming Kinect data to their servers. Or put even simpler, every online Xbox One is a window into that home for the NSA.
- Xbox One consoles can be instructed to capture streamed data from the Kinect on the internal HDD for later uploading when Internet connection is restored.
- Lists of trigger conditions can be downloaded to any console- triggers that will automatically activate Kinect data gathering and streaming. Triggers might include a gunshot, certain people entering the room, people having sex in the room, a man speaking Arabic, sounds of a domestic disturbance, someone using the 'N'-word (look how that simple detail brought down a powerful woman recently- remember the usefulness of gathering potential 'blackmail' info).
So much attention was given to helping the NSA, that Microsoft forgot to bother making the console worth buying in the first place. It has 1/2 (as in 50%) of the GPU performance of Sony's PS4, yet costs more. Its GPU design needs special programming, unlike the clean GPU sub-system of the PS4 (this despite the fact that both consoles use the same AMD base graphics processing units).
Microsoft is pushing this ad crap to try to explain to VERY dumb sheep why the Kinect system is always-on. The really dumb sheep are supposed to be still unaware of the unbelievable extent of the NSA abuses. Even now, in gaming forums aimed at Xbox users, the consensus successful pushed by Microsoft reputation managers is that the NSA spying allegations have been disproved, but obviously when the rotten console finally goes on sale, and tests prove the Kinect is always running, some cover story will be needed to justify this.
Oh come on
Think of the PORN millions of xboxes could produce... for free!
We'll have a whole new category for porn now and you too can access is for $10 a month on xboxkinection.com
For a reasonable fee of $50 per year AND $5 per message Micro-One-Dating will also put you in touch with single attractive dating prospects!
Ignore the SQUICK we cut to the QUICK! Why stalk the girl of your dreams and get arrested peeping through her window when we can provide you with high resolution full colour video - and NOW we feature On Demand for just a little extra $$!
Join the ratemyxboxoneperformance.com site as we now are accepting public submissions in addition to those provided by the professional critics at MicroSoft headquarters!
You have a sick, twisted mind. Please subscribe me to your newsletter.
No, really, I'm not kidding, there is no possible additional feature or "exclusive" game or service that could make me EVER buy something like this.
Do not want with a fierce burning passion.
I'm fine with this as long as there are enough alternate scenes so that at any point in time I can say, "Kill yourself." and all on-screen characters will suddenly find creative ways to do so.
This would be endlessly entertaining.
I would be telling my friends which commercial to watch and when to say something.
Maybe that's the future of commercials: viral Easter Egg hunts.
(No, I don't actually think this is a ad integration is a good thing.)
Slimfast and match.com is gonna be appearing on most I bet.
Don't forget about the possibility of ads from local chiropractors!
It can play the moment you put your back out.
"Hi, this is Kinect Bob. I see you are screaming in agony and prone on the floor, would you like me to contact Dr. Friendly for you? Twitch to the left for YES".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Do we really need Soviet Russia anymore? I was under the impression we already surpassed them by leaps and bounds when it comes to domestic spying and keeping the population under control.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Apparently it needs to be connected for hte xbox to work. But can't you just put a sock over it? Congrats MS.. you get a first hand look at what the inside of my sock looks like... 24/7.
The Orwellian parallel is the TVs in 1984 which couldn't be turned off and could spy on you. People in the book used to put curtains over the TVs when they weren't using them. But they couldn't turn them off. They'd just sit there all day and all night... and you had to put a curtain over them if you wanted any sleep. Do the same with this stupid connect device. Put a sock over it.
Or do the really bright thing and don't buy it. MS is not providing what the consumer wants. This is not an honest product.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Bing image search doesn't enforce safe-search if you decide to turn it off (Google doesn't allow you to globally do this anymore) and has a pretty decent interface. The rest is not helpful, but image search is.
Our evil camera is non-negotiable!
It's not advertising, it's a new form of achievements.
* Watched 100 ads in 3 hours
* Clicked on 50 ads
* Said "Xbox ONE, search for pizza"
Bing image search doesn't enforce safe-search if you decide to turn it off (Google doesn't allow you to globally do this anymore) and has a pretty decent interface. The rest is not helpful, but image search is.
Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more!
Fine, in Capitalist America, Bing searches you!
Better?
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Fine, in Fascist America, Bing searches you!
FTFY
Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
They had this in 1984. It was called a telescreen. Like the Kinect One, the telescreen can't be turned off.
I've never bought anything due to an advert and pay no attention to them whatsoever. I even switch channels on tv when they come on.
So I pay for the box (and the kinect camera), I pay for the game, and I even pay to get online, and yet they still shove ads to my face?
The Russian search engine Yandex is one of the sources for duckduckgo. We need them because they help to maintain our privacy.
In Soviet Russia, you watch television.
"Dear,
why porn sites automaticallt showed up as soon as you looked into the monitor?"
Imagine you are an executive at a company that makes a gadget that users interact with. The user pays for the gadget along with the interactive services that the gadget provides.
Lets also suppose that the gadget is very popular and has a large user base. Being a profit-seeking individual, you as an executive come up with the genius idea of integrating ads into the gadget.
You demonstrate that by introducing ads you can immediately impact the bottom line in a positive manner (at least in the short term). Since most businesses are short-term oriented, everyone is excited. Your genius idea is implemented and you get a bonus that is commensurate with the money your idea brings in.
All the executives line their pocket and live happily ever after. As far as the consumers who were buying your gadget, if they eventually stop buying/using your gadget, so what. You got yours (golden parachute opens).....The end.
I've already PAID you handsomely for the console, I've PAID for the games, now you want to shove ads on my face? FUCK YOU.
If you want me to put up with this horseshit, you need to give me something in return, like a free console, games or Live subscription. Until then, FUCK YOU.
They are experience enhancements. Don't you want to be able to play the Palmolive Virtual Dishwasher Kinect game?
Or how about the Pep Boys quick service oil change time challenge! Fun for you, you will love it!
who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
Allowing cameras from the same company working with the feds, to film you while are naked on the sofa, is a no-no for me.
Bing image search gave me nude pictures of children when trying to find a picture of young Anakin Skywalker. I wouldn't recommend the service to anyone.
More Microsoft bias.
I don't think most people get it. The Xbox is not a game console, it's a media center. It plays movies through Hulu and Netflix, and Xbox Live, and will now play cable TV. The interactive ads will be through these channels, not games, duh.
As long as you are not required to participate. I loathe Hulu asking you if this is a good advertising "experience for you" and refuse to click.
Actually I don't even use Hulu anymore. Multiple 30s commercials just like TV meh. I lived through the era of broadcast-only TV where you could not fast forward thru commercials. This is no improvement, Hulu. You've returned people to the dark ages.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
my hardcore Call 'o Duty friends prefer it on the XBox because the dedicated servers make a huge difference. That's really why Sony's following suit with their own version of XBL. You really do want/need dedicated servers for multiplayer. Heck, Quake 2 had them in what, 1995...?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Kinect may offer you a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' style narrative in which you speak commands or give orders to an ad as it's playing to change the final outcome.
I'm thinking skip or some variation of f-word will be the more common commands issued when ads appear.
Microsoft knows that most gamers really won't give a shit. FFS, people generally don't give a shit about ANYTHING these days aside from who died in the latest Game of Thrones and how many times Justin Bieber puked on stage. We've been slowly conditioned over the past few decades to care less and less about this stuff. There will be no uproar.
informative +1
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
If you told anyone three decades ago that you'd have to turn to Russia as a US citizen if you wanted liberty and privacy...
The times sure are a'changing.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Come play my lord.
They don't need to reintroduce Family Sharing to get the console back on track. It will have the feature already. Just hand your game DVD to a family member and let them play it on the system.
Ok after the whole backing off of the crap they were going to do with the Xbox One I was in and was going to get one. Now I am out again. I don't want ads, I hate them on tv, I really hate them on the internet, but I refuse to be bombarded with them on a console.
"Microsoft will likely learn that telling gamers that the Xbox One is an ad-centric experience and attempting to spin it like a positive doesn't actually work."
It worked for XBOXLive, so well they get people to actually pay for it. I think this will work well too, they aim mostly at kids and frankly kids are pretty dumb (ie - the success of XBOXLive).
Strike 3, yer out!
Xbox One, I didn't even get to know you.
Xbox One RIP
2013 (mid) - 2013 (late-mid)
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.