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Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

reuters.com

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Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#101

Post by LeonenTheDK »

neogodless wrote: post #100
LeonenTheDK wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the Quest existed before the Facebook purchase. The Quest was announced in 2018 but Facebook made the purchase in 2014. Unless you mean before the Facebook login was forced upon Oculus users.

Well damn. That flew under my radar. Or I put up some mental blocks because our family really wanted one while some from the older generation could still experience it. Now that I think back, I think we knew that, but it was still an "Oculus" account at the time, before the "Facebook account" requirement was announced. That seems to have been announced August of 2020... just weeks after we bought our Quest.

Honestly I didn't think the purchase was until like, 2017. I'm just as surprised. It kills me that Facebook owns the entry level and stand alone market as well (said as an Index owner).

(in response to the edit) I can see that, my first VR headset was the CV1 Rift and my logic at the time was similar. Sure Facebook owned it but everything seemed to be still fairly separated. None of what happened after was particularly surprising.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#102

Post by RodgerTheGreat »

silicon2401 wrote: post #68
rychco wrote: post #36

I despise ads in all forms, and the absolute worst offenders are ads built into a platform just like this. Windows 10 shouldn’t be advertising on my desktop, PlayStation/Xbox shouldn’t be advertising on my dashboard, cars shouldn’t be advertising on the controls/display, and Facebook shouldn’t be advertising in my virtual reality headset.

I understand the dislike of ads, but not so much the complaint. Companies are free to insert ads if they want to, and we're free to choose what media we consume. I hate ads and would be glad to see them outlawed like billboards in Vermont, but I don't stress about it. I accept it as a tradeoff for playing certain games, or I do ad-free things like reading old books or exercising.

If this behavior is normalized, consumers won't have a choice. That's the problem.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#103

Post by matheusmoreira »

silicon2401 wrote: post #68
rychco wrote: post #36

I despise ads in all forms, and the absolute worst offenders are ads built into a platform just like this. Windows 10 shouldn’t be advertising on my desktop, PlayStation/Xbox shouldn’t be advertising on my dashboard, cars shouldn’t be advertising on the controls/display, and Facebook shouldn’t be advertising in my virtual reality headset.

I understand the dislike of ads, but not so much the complaint. Companies are free to insert ads if they want to, and we're free to choose what media we consume. I hate ads and would be glad to see them outlawed like billboards in Vermont, but I don't stress about it. I accept it as a tradeoff for playing certain games, or I do ad-free things like reading old books or exercising.

> Companies are free to insert ads if they want to

They shouldn't be.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#104

Post by ethbr0 »

nuclearcookie wrote: post #28
cj wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't Oculus games typically $20-50? The price points for games always seemed very high to me. In an ideal world they'd offer a "no ads, full price" version and a "discount with ads" version. My guess is we'll probably just be left with "full price with ads" as the only option.

What would you consider a fair price for a game? Are you talking about games in general or just games on Oculus?

The problem with selling games is that they depreciate -- because Facebook doesn't control competition.

The benefit of ads is that ad space appreciates -- because Facebook controls supply, and revenue follows inflation and demand.

So as GP alluded to, this can be summarized as Facebook saying "We'd like to have bigger future profit margins on VR."

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#105

Post by [deleted] »

mattferderer wrote: post #64
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is getting the blame, but it’s actually game developers who are choosing to add these ads to their games. I’d be upset if these ads were on the Oculus hardware that I paid for in the games I bought, but if it’s just going into freemium games then it’s business as usual in the ad space. I haven’t even heard of the “Blaston” game the article cites as one of the first games to adopt the ads.

Out of curiosity, I'm assuming most of the ads are giant in your face ones. Do they do any subliminal product placement type ads too & if so are any of them dynamic based on user data? Might as well go all out & have a variety of props you can exchange based on user data. I seem to be able to avoid ads quite a bit through tools & life style choices. I therefore ask this as someone whose personal opinion does not like…

[deleted]

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#106

Post by gentleman11 »

silicon2401 wrote: post #68
rychco wrote: post #36

I despise ads in all forms, and the absolute worst offenders are ads built into a platform just like this. Windows 10 shouldn’t be advertising on my desktop, PlayStation/Xbox shouldn’t be advertising on my dashboard, cars shouldn’t be advertising on the controls/display, and Facebook shouldn’t be advertising in my virtual reality headset.

I understand the dislike of ads, but not so much the complaint. Companies are free to insert ads if they want to, and we're free to choose what media we consume. I hate ads and would be glad to see them outlawed like billboards in Vermont, but I don't stress about it. I accept it as a tradeoff for playing certain games, or I do ad-free things like reading old books or exercising.

Free to choose how? We can’t know what ads are hidden inside until after we buy

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#107

Post by matheusmoreira »

philipswood wrote: post #2

Is it just me? I would rather just pay for stuff and be done with it rather than have my attention and sensorium sold to the highest bidder.

It's absolutely not just you. Those people would put ads under our eyelids if they could get away with it. We need to actively fight against this by somehow blocking all these ads with no exceptions. Drive their return on investment as close to zero as possible.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#108

Post by baconator123 »

recursive wrote: post #74
silicon2401 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the dislike of ads, but not so much the complaint. Companies are free to insert ads if they want to, and we're free to choose what media we consume. I hate ads and would be glad to see them outlawed like billboards in Vermont, but I don't stress about it. I accept it as a tradeoff for playing certain games, or I do ad-free things like reading old books or exercising.

I'm not against companies doing it. I'm just against me consuming it. This is why I subscribed to netflix instead of hulu.

same with me...however, what i am annoyed is sometimes ads get in the way of your net activity and sometimes difficult to put it off...

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#109

Post by thrwaeasddsaf »

nindalf wrote: post #22
philipswood wrote: post #2

Is it just me? I would rather just pay for stuff and be done with it rather than have my attention and sensorium sold to the highest bidder.

It’s not just you, but you are a tiny minority. You’ve expressed a sentiment that’s very popular on HN, but not among the general population. Take YouTube - a popular ad supported service with a premium tier. How many people are willing to pay to remove ads? Less than 1%. Even on HN I don’t think that number would be more than 10%.

You're oversimplifying, because the question isn't about paying to remove ads vs not paying and seeing ads, but about paying and getting the product or not paying and not getting the product.

People's behavior depends on the circumstances they are given, and if "free (with ads)" is one choice, then indeed a lot of people will choose it over paying. However, if option is not given, it doesn't mean everyone who would've picked free are not going to pay at all.

There are some highly popular freemium/ad supported games but also lots of very popular games that you simply must pay for. Applying the 1% number from products where the choice is ad-free-or-paid to must-pay-for games and assuming they'd get 99x more users if given for free with ads is just completely wrong.

In general, people seem quite willing to pay for games (this may be less true in mobile, that's a rather different market). The challenge isn't that people don't want to pay, it's that the market is extremely saturated and it's hard to stand out from the crowd & produce a game that everyone wants to play over all the other choices.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#110

Post by [deleted] »

cj wrote: post #25
prepend wrote: post #8

> Facebook said it will use the test to explore ways to help developers earn revenue on the Oculus platform. How about by just selling games? I hate this mealy-mouthed way of deflecting that it’s not about Facebook’s revenue, but about “helping developers.”

Aren't Oculus games typically $20-50? The price points for games always seemed very high to me. In an ideal world they'd offer a "no ads, full price" version and a "discount with ads" version. My guess is we'll probably just be left with "full price with ads" as the only option.

[deleted]
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