Brace Yourselves, We're Now Going To Be Served Ads In VR
Published
Featured Image Credit: Julia M Cameron (via Pexels) / Disney Pixar
Have you ever watched dystopian future films and thought, "ha, that's so unlikely, we're never going to get to the point that we're sat in floating chairs and just consuming advertisements all day". Well, Pixar classic film WALL-E might have got the advertising prediction right as Facebook has begun testing ads in VR games.
According to PC Gamer, the social media giant has begun trying out a system in which you will see adverts for products or services within games while you're playing. In a blog post, Facebook detailed some of its plans for this system but paints the ads as a way to make the platform and VR gaming more sustainable.
I'm not sure I'd mind adverts in games if they were for fun things at least. Like the upcoming Xbox Series X mini-fridge that Microsoft revealed at E3...
Loading…
Though Facebook started this journey by adding ads to the Oculus app, the prompts to buy products are now being tested in the game Blaston by Resolution Games. The further purpose of these tests is to eventually add advertisements into Facebook's "augmented reality initiatives" (which genuinely sounds like WALL-E, right?).
Additionally, the post says that Facebook is "exploring new ways for developers to generate revenue - this is a key part of ensuring we're creating a self-sustaining platform that can support a variety of business models that unlock new types of content and audiences. It also helps us continue to make innovative AR/VR hardware more accessible to more people."
So, it might be a good way for game developers to monetise their work without microtransactions landing in a gamer's lap, but equally, it can seem pretty invasive. Audiences will retain control seeing certain types of ads by clicking and requesting to not be shown that advert again or adverts from that company but that's about it.
Even so, Facebook says that it's trying to innovate in "investing in unobtrusive ads" - this is an early test and we'll certainly see evolutions of this tech in the future.
