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Facebook Begins Testing of Oculus VR Advertising

kevinw729
Honored Visionary

 

kevinw729_0-1623873364342.png

 



https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/16/facebook-to-begin-testing-ads-inside-oculus-virtual-reality-headsets...

https://vrawards.aixr.org/ "The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities" https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Home-Immersive-Entertainment-Frontier/dp/1472426959
194 REPLIES 194

hoppingbunny123
Rising Star

one game in vr uses ads to make money the same game on another vr headset uses no ads and makes or loses money then the same game on other vr headsets starts to use ads and makes money.

 

https://youtu.be/GeCL5XfNHfE


@InsomniaDoodles wrote:

 I am VERY irritated that they are considering putting ads in games that I have paid for. I did not pay $40 for


 

I see no reason to be irritated over a "consideration." This is an opportunity to explore ideas, acceptance, etc.

 

We often hear about how Facebook and Oculus function as a "loss leader" however, we rarely openly address the fact that virtually every VR development studio suffers losses. This is true for both SteamVR and Oculus apps. Even Half-Life: Alyx barely made a profit based on recent estimates.

 

Everything is a loss leader in VR. So these Ads are a way to help developers have a real incentive to build applications. There is a total lack of quality in VR experiences (games and otherwise), especially across the whole of SteamVR. Developers have no incentive to put more time and effort in to making higher caliber experiences, because the more time and effort they spend... the bigger their loss.

 

Ads help cure this. If we are wanting to support the VR software ecosystem, then we should be supporting the amount of Revenue, Profit, and overall ROI that development studios of all sizes can yield. 

 

To your concern - which is quite valid - I would simply suggest that any Developers introducing Ads in to an "already purchased game" simply offer a refund. I agree that anyone who bought a game ad-free should be allowed to refund of the game if it suddenly becomes ad-ridden.

 

But this approach, and idea (consideration), itself shouldn't be cause for alarm or frustration. If advertisements are successful for developers in the Smart App ecosystem (which is a multi-billion dollar industry) then we should certainly support our VR developers in the same manner.

You make a good point about the losses, but I still stand my my right to be irritated if they force ads on me in games I paid so much money for. They should at least have an option to disable ads in paid games. 


@InsomniaDoodles wrote:

You make a good point about the losses, but I still stand my my right to be irritated if they force ads on me in games I paid so much money for. They should at least have an option to disable ads in paid games. 


 

Agreed. Paid games should have an ad-free option. This is how it functions for any paid service (e.g. Hulu, Smart Phone Apps). Or, as I mentioned, offer a refund if Paid Apps will have forced Ads.

If they offer a refund option, many users (including myself) are going to take it, and use that money to purchase the same games via Steam and use our VR capable PCs to play the same games via air link or virtual desktop without ads, which would ultimately hurt Oculus. I simply won't buy oculus exclusives at that point. 


@InsomniaDoodles wrote:

If they offer a refund option, many users (including myself) are going to take it, and use that money to purchase the same games via Steam and use our VR capable PCs to play the same games via air link or virtual desktop without ads, which would ultimately hurt Oculus. I simply won't buy oculus exclusives at that point. 


 

I would argue against the idea of "many users" in this case, simply because PCVR has a very small number of users. Many people, based on industry estimates, who purchase the Quest are using it as Stand-Alone. The PCVR market is quite small, which is why all major PCVR headsets (Vive, Index, Reverb) have incredibly low sales numbers. It's also the reason that Steam's VR stats show that the Quest is the leading HMD using SteamVR. Quest is beating out Index on its own PCVR platform.

 

 

I have seen this type of thing play out before, and yes, there will be some number of consumers who jump ship. It always happens. There is a term for it: Customer Attrition.

 

Facebook, like every other major corporation, assesses and plans for this. Part of the trial run we are going through now is to assess the impact of Customer Attrition resulting from this Ad strategy.

 

Considering the number of users who gladly accept Ads in Mobile Games and subscription services like Hulu, I think it's safe to say that OculusVR will survive Ads. Especially when the income generated from those Ads ends up being used to help the Oculus ecosystem flourish even more.

 

Also, if Oculus proves this to be successful, then it is only a matter of time before we see ads in VR Games on Steam as well. Epic games will have Ads very soon, even their standard flat games. HTC indicated their VR Ad strategy back in 2017.

 

It's only a matter of time that this becomes the standard across the board.

I'm not paying $40 again for a game that comes with ads that make money off of my data. No, thanks. 


@InsomniaDoodles wrote:

I'm not paying $40 again for a game that comes with ads that make money off of my data. No, thanks. 


Speaking as a gamer, I agree; especially if the game serves the ads in an obtrusive manner. But if a $40 game could be offered to me for $5 / $10 or even free because instead of being full price, it was ad supported, I'd be much more interested. Perhaps in the future a $40 game could instead have an ad based tier at a lower price and if I loved it but not the ads, I could pay the full $40 to remove them.

 

The first game that is testing this out is Blaston, which I believe is a $10 game. We've got some good information about the whole deal here on our blog if you're interested in learning more.

Help others find great discussions and answers by adding kudos and marking solutions to your questions.


@Ryanality wrote:

Speaking as a gamer, I agree; especially if the game serves the ads in an obtrusive manner. But if a $40 game could be offered to me for $5 / $10 or even free because instead of being full price, it was ad supported, I'd be much more interested. Perhaps in the future a $40 game could instead have an ad based tier at a lower price and if I loved it but not the ads, I could pay the full $40 to remove them.

 

The first game that is testing this out is Blaston, which I believe is a $10 game. We've got some good information about the whole deal here on our blog if you're interested in learning more.


 

A few thoughts here! 😁

 

First, as a long time user of this forum, I can confirm that over the years (for me, going back to 2016), it is quite common for users to post about their dislike of the high-priced VR Games. For several years, it was common for this forum to receive concerns over a $30-$50 priced VR Game that offered less than 20 hours of gameplay. I'm sure other regulars like nalex and DaftnDirect remember those conversations well.

 

The response back then from VR Enthusiasts like myself was simply, "well, this is a new emerging technology, and we are paying extra for the cost of Immersion."

 

The complaints about price continue to exist today. Although I see them less on this forum and more on the Facebook VR Groups. Most of it seems to be the result of the low-cost Quest 2 unit.

 

There's a slight dilemma created when we have a VR System priced at $299 yet the games are $30 each. It doesn't take long before a consumer will realize that they are spending more on games than the unit itself yet their total number of owned games is quite small.

 

Introducing Ads in a smart and strategic way is a great solution to bring that cost down, and support the low-cost entry to VR. Anyone purchasing a low-priced VR System should have a relatively vast VR Library without drastically exceeding the cost of the system itself.

 

I especially like this part of the blog post:

Ads are most effective when they’re high-quality and relevant—because of that, Oculus ads will follow Facebook’s advertising principles, the first of which is “build for people first.” It’s also important that people can manage the ads they see, so we’re including controls to hide specific ads or hide ads from an advertiser completely. Users can also access more detailed Ad Preferences from any ad via our “Why am I seeing this ad?” interface. As our tests progress, we’ll continue listening to feedback to improve the ads people see.

 

I've been using Facebook for years, and this approach to Ads has been fantastic. I actively use Facebook's ad customization features to block entire content, specific advertisers, and the info in which Facebook uses in order to deliver the Ads. It's a pretty awesome way to have control over the manner in which a person receives advertisements.

 

We are in the early stages of "Ads in VR," but the vision is clear and once the dust settles a bit, the overall benefit for the consumers is going to be quite impressive. 

@InsomniaDoodles, that's a fair comment and agreed. i assume devs that have sold a game at a particular price have done their sums and advertising shouldn't then be added. Increasing revenue to invest in future game development that way wouldnt be popular if that was the reason.

 

Have the games been listed that will include the adds? I gather Blaston is one (don't know that app) plus 2 other un-named.