Microsoft patents system to freeze games and inject ads during downtimes

Posted by ricobecks 1 day ago

Comments

Comment by 0cf8612b2e1e 1 day ago

Already becoming standard that if you pause on a streaming platform, the page turns into an ad.

I paused because I wanted to see something on the screen, and now I cannot.

Comment by account42 13 hours ago

This is a result of not owning the software that runs on your computer, in this case software masquerading as a website. mpv + yt-dlp does not have this problem because it serves the users interests rather than the platform's.

Comment by ncr100 23 hours ago

JellyFin is great for streaming owned video content.

The challenge is acquiring ownership of video via DVD and bluray purchase, since renting the right to view is the norm today via purchasing only a temporary license to watch.

Comment by arielcostas 19 hours ago

Just download it anywhere and train an AI model with it, that makes it legal.

Comment by AuthAuth 14 hours ago

Ask your ai to go get it and then its legal

Comment by silverFork 1 day ago

Next stop, subscription to stop the ad injection. The stuff is no longer a game or operating system you purchase; it is a marriage certificate that needs permanent financial commitment. Every hardware and software platforms wants to extract monthly fees or inject ads. Growth doesn't mean inventing something new. It is the same old stuff with more fees to pay.

Comment by rozab 1 day ago

How could this patent application have any chance of being accepted? This exact system has been used in mobile games for 15 years at least

Comment by onion2k 1 day ago

Sony should buy a lot of those ads to advertise the fact that Playstation doesn't do that. They'll get a lot of new customers.

Comment by hexapus 1 day ago

They don't do that, yet. And you still don't own your games. Screw Sony too.

Comment by xacky 1 day ago

And Microsoft should counter by advertising physical media.

Comment by salawat 1 day ago

Push based advertising needs to be outlawed. Period. It's one thing if I'm actually looking for something to get your sales funnel, it's completely another to normalize behavior that incents shoehorning advertising into activities completely divorced from the act of searching for businesses to transact with.

I'll call you. Stop trying to force yourself on me.

Comment by RugnirViking 1 day ago

Absolutely. Its also an arms race - if one company advertised like this, maybe they'd get an advantage. But given that everyone does it, they're back to where they started, relative to each other (and also relative to the wider economy!)

Comment by account42 13 hours ago

Yes. It's spam and needs to be treated as such. And like most spam its full of scams trying to trick you into acting against your own interests.

Comment by blacksmith_tb 1 day ago

Can we hope that they'll defend this patent, and no one else will be able to abuse their customers in the same way? (More likely the obvious prior art means it's dead in the water, but we can dream).

Comment by brianpbeau 1 day ago

Thank goodness for SteamOS

Comment by account42 13 hours ago

Steam is still proprietary software that serves Valve's interests instead of the user's. So far those interests somewhat overlap but there is no guarantee that it will stay that way, especially once Gabe inevitably steps down.