Xbox has not been having the best year so far. It most recently came under fire for closing multiple Bethesda studios and having poor reception from Hellblade 2’s release. Now, the trillion-dollar company is receiving bad press again for putting ads upon booting up a current generation Xbox.
Hellblade 2 is being advertised to all players who boot up the console, whether they’ve played the game or not. While it won’t pop up again, this is setting a dangerous precedent that could lead to PlayStation and Nintendo following suit.
Xbox Pushing Ads – Who Asked For This?
The newest Ninja Theory project is being advertised to all Xbox players on console start-up. On the menu, you can play the game through Game Pass or by purchasing it. In addition, you can watch the trailer to see what the game is all about.
Microsoft is now displaying a Senua's Saga: Hellblade II fullscreen ad after an Xbox boots. It's a one-time popup notification and it shows even if you've played Hellblade II pic.twitter.com/K7sRVI6iew
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) May 28, 2024
The ad won’t pop-up again and will only appear once. However, players are not kind to advertisements on the console dashboard and when this is a mandatory notification, it’s even worse. Players who have played Hellblade 2 will also receive the pop-up.
Fans of the game are worried it will flop and cause Microsoft to close Ninja Theory. One project with poor sales seems to be enough for the company to shut down entire studios. Advertising the game to all players can boost sales but will it actually succeed?
Players Are Unhappy – Stop Placing Ads
Advertisements are everywhere you look, whether you want them or not. Video game companies pushing product placement where it seems hamfisted or unnecessary gets the community upset. Hellblade 2 might flop due to poor advertisement from Microsoft’s part but also the product lacking strong gameplay mechanics.
Inserting ads like this for the game is not creative and straight lazy. There are dozens of fun and unique ad campaigns that get consumers excited for products; games, movies, and overall entertainment.
On the other side of the coin, some don’t mind this one time pop-up ad for Microsoft’s newest game. It makes sense for the company to push the project but this fashion is in poor taste.
I personally don’t understand why people get so bothered by this. They *could* code it so people who have completed the game don’t get the pop-up, but I think wanting to advertise first-party content to Xbox players makes sense.
— Nfinity (@NfinityBL) May 28, 2024
Not everyone is on Twitter/Reddit.
Players have no problems seeing a new game ads from Xbox or any other company on the digital store because ads in a digital marketplace makes sense. But to have a mandatory notification when booting up the console, that’s not fun.
The idea of inserting ads organically will never be a reality because consumers are becoming too smart and recognize when products are inserted as ads. EA can try to put ads in video games but it likely won’t be effective.
What do you think of these Hellblade 2 ads? Let us know in the comments what you think!
