Yesterday it was revealed that Microsoft's proprietary technology, Silverlight, would be brought to Xbox LIVE by the end of 2009 to power more interactive and impressive advertisements. Naturally, that led people to assume that Microsoft, and possibly third-party partners, would now be flooding the 360 dashboard with spiffy new 1080p ads, instead of keeping them isolated to places within the Marketplace. Relax. Not so. Major Nelson addressed the problem on his blog with a short and sweet response.
"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. Silverlight will help make those ads a more organic part of the dashboard, like we’ve done with some of the NXE slots in the past. No one on the team wants to turn the dashboard into something that looks like like Shibuya Crossing. That’s just not good for anyone."
So we won't have to worry about a "huge influx" of Silverlight-powered dashboard ads, but that isn't saying we won't have to worry about more dashboard ads period. How will you feel when you boot up your dashboard later this year and possibly see - regardless of its size, shape or placement - another interactive ad for McDonalds? We already have various ad "cards" on some of the NXE blades now, so it shouldn't be so bad. Interesting. Hey, at least the console and guide are getting that long-awaited speed boost, so you can conceivably skip past them in a flash! Good thing for that $50 per year premium subscription that alleviates these things. Oh.
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Will I still pay for LIVE? Yeah but doesn't mean I'm happy about ads on my dashboard.
P.S Silverlight is a resource HOG, If it slows the dashboard up anymore than it already does it's going to tick people off. Secondly if I ever got ad's like the one in the image above (I know that's a fake) on my dashboard I would seriously trade it in for a PS3 Thank goodness MS probably knows that's not a good idea. I would miss my Halo lol