Microsoft: Ads won't interfere with Xbox Live experience

Microsoft has responded to concerns over a recent announcement it would be bringing Silverlight adverts to its Live service, saying the adverts won't interfere with the gaming experience for users.

Xbox Live's Larry Hryb posted on his Major Nelson blog about the move, reassuring gamers that Microsoft intends to enhance the service with its adverts, not interfere with it. . "I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion today about how we're bringing Silverlight ads to LIVE in the future," he said.

"I need to let you know that you don’t need to worry about a huge influx of ads across the dashboard. One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the Live community."

Microsoft recently spoke about its plans to bring interactive ad campaigns that are compatible with a range of its services, included Live, via Silverlight - software that produces similar results to Adobe Flash. It said that this technology would create the same appearance on the games console as ads viewed on a web browser.

However, Hyrb stresses these ads will become an organic part of the dashboard, comparing them to some of the NXE slots produced in the past.

"No one on the team wants to turn the dashboard into something that looks like Shibuya Crossing," he writes in his post. "That's just not good for anyone."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ive-experience