Wipeout HD load time with and without advertising

UPDATE: The ads have been REMOVED! In recent news, Sony has pulled the ads from the game, so this video is obsolete. While it's always possible that this could be temporary, this is a huge victory for us as paying consumers. This is a new type of intrusive advertising being introduced into games, and it needs to be nipped in the bud before it becomes the norm.

For the moment, no more ads. The gaming community has spoken, and they listened.

UPDATE 2: For those who doubt this video or want to see the impact on other events, I've made a new video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex8HTYfnI1E
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Here's a capture of a loading screen advertisement recently introduced to WipEout HD. I replayed the same track a few times, and captured the loading screen each time. I decided to put the ad screen and normal loading screen next to each other so you can see the extra time added to the loading screen because of the ad. The audio is from the top screen. I don't know if this ad was added because of the Fury expansion or the latest patch, but it's a load of crap. I BOUGHT this game, as well as the expansion, and it has been ad free since I got it a year ago. This kind of shit shouldn't be crammed in after the fact.

If it was just a stationary ad I wouldn't mind. If they advertised on the vehicles or the ad monitors in the game, I wouldn't care too much. But this ad is a video, and it's a little longer than a typical load time. My problem is that I can't skip past the end of the ad even though the level is finished loading. The ad appears every so often (I typically get it 3 times in an hour), and it's only a little longer than the level load time, but that adds up if you play a lot. And since they managed to sneak this in, what's to stop them from forcing you to watch a full 30 second ad or longer before you can play?

If you want advertising in the game, fine. There are plenty of ways to do it. But when your advertising impacts the game's performance, which in this case is the load time, that's complete bullshit. Oh, I should also mention that when I captured this, I had my network cable unplugged, so this ad has been embedded into my game, and I'm forced to watch it even when I'm playing single player, OFFLINE. Forcing me to watch it while I'm playing online is one thing, but altering my single player offline experience is an extremely underhanded tactic.

If this is how SCEA is going to start handling their downloadable games, then I'm going to start waiting several months before buying, and won't be buying any of the games that get ads loaded in them AFTER the game has already been released. This is complete bullshit.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• wipeout
• hd
• load
• time
• fury
• ad
• ads
• advertising
• loading
• comparison

[snarfbot]

yea seriously if the game was free, then fine, playing ads is acceptable.

but if your paying for something there shouldnt be ads.

its bad enough that they put ads on tv, i mean its not like its free or anything.

[falloffcliffman]

My dad just got the game yesterday and there were ads in the loading screen

[mord3030]

Fucking disgusting. The fact that nobody at Sony even thought to speak up about it before it went live is even more disgusting.

"The gaming community has spoken, and they listened."

Must have been a short listening because they're back again.

[Vsyobudetkvas]

so i wanted to see that video at the end - as i am to see another great performance and you, youFUCKINGtube sellers, self-ass-sold bitches putted me in the middle of the ass of the shit of your suckin advertising. yes, i'm from russia and i LOVE DT because they are genius. no, what, you think i'm another idiot that believe what he see in your motherfucking advertising? no, i'm not! you understand you idiots? you betrayed all good people that came here. youtube is goona be crap 'cause of you..

[FrosChannel]

FUCKING HONDA ADS.

[jnrivers]

Still plays ads. I never want to see a Honda commercial again.

[Rodrigo00]

im still gettings ads, it sucks balls man, honda ads now its pissing me off

[Blazah99]

man, i knew this was coming *sad face*, but i didnt know it was already like this because many game dont force you to watch/listen to an ad during the loading screen. Everyone get ready to be bombarded with advertising in your video games because unless someone says something its going to get worse before you know it.

[knieveljaja]

these ads are back. this game is unplayable until i find a way to remove this shiz.

[TaterMySalad]

I got it for the Welcome Back thing and saw a goddamn ad for the honda civic and literally said "what" out loud

[jddaman1337]

They're back