Facebook Begins Testing of Oculus VR Advertising

[kevinw729]

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

[DaftnDirect]

Yep, well, this could all come down to devs deciding to have a splash screen at load-up.

Pancake has had Nvidia and AMD screens since I can remember. A 'sponsored by' screen would definitely take the least amount of effort from a dev to add so why not.

[cmat100]

I love the GIF Eurogamer has chosen....also the comments are not...errrr...positive.  I am suprised that some people commenting were OK with FB accounts but are suprised and annoyed at this.....why else would FB want to use FB accounts!?!?

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-06-17-facebook-is-testing-in-headset-vr-ads-for-oculus#comme...

[Zenbane]

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@cmat100 wrote:

I love the GIF Eurogamer has chosen....also the comments are not...errrr...positive. 

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The comments aren't too bad actually. Some are pretty funny! These were my favs 😁

Can you imagine this in a horror game? You're in a dark and creepy corridor and you spot something, shadow like, going through a door at the end of it. You approach the door and open it slowly only to get jump scared by a **bleep**ing ad screaming at you "GET INSURANCE TODAY".

One of the worlds largest advertising businesses puts advertising on a platform that it is trying to make exclusive. Quelle surprise.

[RuneSR2]

Breaking news: Blaston devs bend to the pressure and Blaston will no longer implement ads!

https://twitter.com/BlastonGame/status/1407059903617896450?s=20

[Anonymous]

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@RuneSR2 wrote:

Breaking news: Blaston devs bend to the pressure and Blaston will no longer implement ads!

https://twitter.com/BlastonGame/status/1407059903617896450?s=20

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👍

Good on them!

[kevinw729]

No matter how some tried to pretend this was not an issue. Or that it was non users that were complaining - we know there was a serious backlash. This is a line in the sand, and we look forward to the pivot - statement - that will be made. 

[Zenbane]

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@RuneSR2 wrote:

Breaking news: Blaston devs bend to the pressure and Blaston will no longer implement ads!

https://twitter.com/BlastonGame/status/1407059903617896450?s=20

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I don't blame Blaston for backing out. This is not the best approach to the new VR Ad platform. By singling out only a handful of Dev Studios it gives rise for this type of targeting.

Blaston should have offered a new, free version of the game, that contains Ads; instead of updating the already bought/paid version.

And this was likely what Facebook was testing for: How will users respond if we update existing paid Apps? And now they know! lol

The next round of tests will need to come from new VR Apps, that are Free + Ads. I look forward to that outcome 🤑

[OmegaM4N]

The voice of the consumer once again proves its power, that is 3 for 3 at this point, the consumer voice stopped them locking the CV1 to the Oculus store, it forced FB to admit they were selling a not fit for purpose peripheral in the elite strap, and now they force a u-turn on in-game ads on consumers after the fact........even when some were wagging their fingers at consumers to keep quite and accept what you are given with thanks. lol

So a big well done again to all consumers who spoke up and fought back against this, another victory. and let us keep showing them the consumers are the ones in the driving seat. 😉

[jab]

It also just means Facebook got the feedback they where looking for (and probably already expected), and now they know that they have to "boil the frog" a little slower for a while.

The problem here isn't whatever FB does or says on any given day, since we all know they will do whatever they think they can get away with and then some.

Instead there is a fundamental problem where consumers are slowly being trained into accepting that giving away information/privacy and being spammed with ads is just how it is. And reading the responses here, some are clearly further along in their 'education' then others.

[DaftnDirect]

Facebook have decided not to place adverts in Blaston? I thought it was the decision of Revolution games??

Not surprising given it was already a paid for game Revolution would have gotten the criticism from people who had already purchased it.

FB must have offered the ad facility to a number of devs for the test, both free and paid for apps and the latter were never going to get any love, understandably. It was counter-productive and was going to give the boiling brigade something to dine out on. Whoever it was in FB who thought that was going to be a good test should have thought again!

I've had a FB account since pretty much the beginning when a friend set one up for me when she was returning to her home country and wanted to stay in touch that way, I haven't used it much but that's by-the-by.

In terms of real-world problems relating to privacy, I've had cold calls, scam calls, an attempted credit card fraud (someone setting up a card in my name) and doorstep sellers of various religious, commercial and charity varieties. Surprisingly, reading all of the comments here, no FB related privacy problems (not really surprisingly).

Developers of free apps should be given the opportunity for revenue I think. Why not offer some thoughts on how to do that, if ads aren't the way? same as YouTube content creators. We've heard that some people block ads on YT but not sure how that helps advance the argument. There doesn't seem to be a joining of the dots, regarding revenue, cost, app availability and incentives.

Should a dev not be offered ad revenue, even if that could make the difference between making a paid or free app... or the difference between a £10 app and a £15 app.... or the difference between making a VR app or a pancake app?

Should devs of future premium content be encouraged to make a VR game through direct funding from FB and not by any other way?

Should FB buy more developers to increase content? who pays for that?

Should FB stop subsidising their headsets?

As with life, I think there should be as many questions being asked as there are statement being made.