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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."
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.
Will not buy.
Wow, I actually want the new xbox less than I want a Wii U now...
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'd be okay with this on the condition that the kinect interprets the middle finger as a "skip ad" gesture
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.
and TODAY nobody is bad-mouthing Steam after over a decade of DRM-encumbered operation.
I am. Plenty of other people still do. So, you're wrong.
Only old people use Bing. And only then because likely they confused it with Bingo.
So will I have to run in place for ten seconds to skip a weight loss ad and play my game?
People were not complaining about selling games with the DRM an, they were complaining about not being able to play them.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
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.
> How often are people screwed by selling their used games for pennies on the dollar?
Umm its a used item, its not gold or an investment. I want to buy a used game as cheap as I can get it, that's all that matters. I think you're confused on the used marker thingy, its about buying second hand items "cheap" not selling them for 90% of the retail sticker price.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
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.
I am not an avid gamer, but I do occasionally play games. I will never drop $60 on a new game, and I won't go to Gamestop to spend $50 on a used one. What I will do, however is occasionally troll garage sales, and Amazon for interesting looking games. I bought the Force Unleashed I and II for $8 total a few weeks ago. If Microsoft's new system were in place, I never could have done that.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
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
...it provides consumer protection... by elevating prices...
Reality is so much freakier than drugs...
Man, what is in this shit, man?
Mostly Maui Waui man, but it's got some Labrador in it.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
From the Wikipedia article regarding Steam (my emphasis):
"Steam collects and reports anonymous metrics of its usage, stability, and performance.[53] With the exception of Valve's hardware survey,[54] most collection occurs without notifying the user or offering an opt-out. Some of these metrics are available publicly, such as what games are being played or statistics on player progress in certain games.[55] Valve has also used information from these statistics to justify implementing new features in Steam, such as the addition of a defragmentation option for game caches.[56] Valve announced on July 15, 2010 that in conjunction with collecting hardware information in Steam's opt-in hardware surveys, they would begin collecting a list of the user's installed software as well.[57]"
I don't bad-mouth Steam/Valve--I simply don't do business with them. Never have, never will. I suspect I am not alone in that regard.
People were not complaining about selling games with the DRM an, they were complaining about not being able to play them.
That's exactly what DRM is designed to do. By putting up with it, you are subsidising your own restrictions.
Anything else amounts to expecting the gaming corporations to act against their own profit motives. If they can tempt you into accepting unreasonable restrictions with the latest shiny, they will. If they can either kill off or control the used games markets, they will. These things make them more money. It's just that simple.
Anyone who purchases DRM'ed titles and complains about this needs to take a long look into the mirror. Expecting goodwill from these corporations is madness. They view you in much the same way that coal companies view the mines. You're a resource to be tapped. What's right and wrong to these sociopaths is whatever you'll bend over and take. I mean, this should be easy: we are talking about gaming systems here, not food and water. The slightest discipline means you prevail and *they* bend over and take it because their alternative is going out of business.
The situation is downright pitiful. I think the executives see it this way as well, which is why they feel completely justified in their exploitation. They feel completely justified taking advantage because it's what so many people want (or don't care about) and are willing to pay for.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
Do you know anywhere in the US where you can rent as well as sell/buy used PC games? Neither do I. I guess Steams lack of those features is rather a moot point, and there are tons of people whining about Steam.
:(
If you're curious, my state passed a law over a decade ago that totally killed PC software rentals and used sales.
By the way, the new 'features' of xbox v3 has me totally committed to buying something else, probably a ps4.
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
This model seems to work on Steam and TODAY nobody is bad-mouthing Steam after over a decade of DRM-encumbered operation.
Nobody in US where consumer protection means protecting corporations from users. Germany is suing Valve over steam no resale policy, they did it after landmark case versus Oracle that reinforced right to resale software..
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
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
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
I have no problem with Steam. They actually seem to realize that digital delivery means the customer can save money. When I'm buying fairly recent games for 60% off or whatever, I don't really care if I can't resell them. Steam makes purchasing and playing games pretty cheap and easy, so I like it.
Origin, is another story. Steam works precisely because it's publisher-agnostic. Origin will never gain that momentum because EA is just using it as a way to increase profits by cutting out the costs of physical distribution, without passing any savings to the customer.
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!
Knowing how the kinect works with digit interpretation now, it would probably just be mistaken for the "buy one" gesture.
What?!? It's not a bug, it's a feature!
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!
You only forget to mention who "consumers" are. They are companies that sell ads and game publishers.
As for the people who are typically referred to as "customers" by the rest of us, your type of shill usually refers to them as "product".
P.S. There are plenty of us who badmouth steam over DRM.
I'd be OK with it if Microsoft was giving them away. Charging advertisers to put ads in front of users and then making users pay for the Xbox so that they can be pummelled with ads seems, somehow, really fucking greedy.
In Soviet Russia, you watch television.
How often are people screwed by selling their used games for pennies on the dollar?
Never.
First, you have no inherent right to recoup your costs. So, if you fail to do that, you're not getting screwed. Second, some used games sell for more than pennies on the dollar.
The XBOX One scheme actually does two things: it provides consumer protection in the used game market by elevating prices
What? That's not how it works, because no right of consumers is being protected here.
and it appears to also provide minimal (and nominal) revenue for publishers when a game is resold.
IOW, it is just another example of rent-seeking, which does not advance humanity in any way. Indeed, it retards progress by adding incentives to not progress, since you can continue to profit from old work done. But First Sale law is quite clear on this issue when it comes to physical goods, and there's no good reason why the sale of a virtual good should be treated differently.
This model seems to work on Steam and TODAY nobody is bad-mouthing Steam after over a decade of DRM-encumbered operation.
Bull. Fucking. Shit. I badmouth Steam over their DRM every time Steam comes up, and I'm certainly not alone. You, sir, are most likely a liar, and are ignorant at best.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"