They could start with Game Pass but then end up on the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S interface after all, Microsoft sells the consoles at a loss so could see advertising as a way to claw back some of that money.Ĭompared to the PS5’s user interface, I find that of the Series X a tad bland and a little busy. Then there’s the question of where will such advertising efforts stop. But my skeptical synapse is tingling, and I’d not be surprised if Microsoft raised the price of Ultimate as part of a move to channel impatient players onto the top subscription tier. Of course, if Microsoft does pursue advertising within Game Pass, paying for the Ultimate subscription could help bypass them. Microsoft could work to make such ads targeted, but I've not seen it do a great job of that in the past. I don’t want to get an ad for dental floss when I’m about to play Elden Ring or be encouraged to join a trading platform when I’m about to tear around the Mexican countryside in Forza Horizon 5. Then there's the question of what type of ads will be delivered. These were just static ads, and I’d be concerned that Microsoft could pursue serving up video ads, which, going by how many YouTube forces into my eyes, could be very distracting and frustrating. They made the tile interface look scruffy and took me out of the experience of getting ready for a gaming session. Microsoft does a lot well, but I’m not convinced serving ads is its forte.Īds did pop up in the Xbox One dashboard and I wasn’t a fan of those. Ads have felt intrusive and un-targeted, pulling me out of the experience of say customizing Windows. Well, for starters, the advertising experience in other Microsoft platforms has never been great in my experience. This is all logical, so what do I think it’s a bad idea? It’s likely Game Pass Ultimate would remain ad-free, with people incentivized to pay more to avoid ads.

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