Everyone is seeing this in a very negative light, and while I'm definitely not a big fan of advertising, I don't think the service Sam plans to provide is bad at all. It certainly isn't the EA-esque consumer-unfriendly hell many seem to see it as.
The two concerns seem to be:
Ads in games suck; this is everything bad about modern gaming
Yea, ads do suck, but if they're smart about what they do, they could actually fix the current state of advertising in F2P games. Greedy companies are going to want to stick ads everywhere in VR/AR. Think interstitial ads in mobile games are annoying now? Imagine playing a VR game, dying, then being immediately loaded into a virtually constructed kitchen.
Text pops up in your field of view: "Pour yourself a delicious bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios to continue playing! Check your pantry!"
That's the type of intrusive advertising that will be possible with VR/AR - if it proves possible.
On the other hand, if Admix can get ahead of the curve and test non-intrusive in-game advertising - like putting an ad on the panels in Rocket League - and publish their research proving this is a more effective strategy for advertising, they could shift the entire industry in that direction.
I know ads aren't fun, but they're inevitable, and if the choice is between massively intrusive VR ads, or minimally intrusive ads built into the game world, the choice seems clear.
Now onto the other concern...
VR is a premium consumer space; F2P games won't be popular there
This is just short-sighted. The Oculus Go ($199) is already doing excellent numbers sales-wise, and the standalone Oculus Quest ($399) is launching within a couple of months, no PC or console necessary. Prices are going to keep dropping, and adoption is going to keep rising. That's not even mentioning the multiple consumer-ready AR headsets and devices that will be hitting the market within the next decade. So no, the market isn't there yet; I mean, of course it isn't. If Admix were the first to introduce non-intrusive advertising to a market that was already matured to the point of needing it they would've just raised 200 million, not just 2. This is a play for the future, not the present.
Sorry about the essay above, I'm just absolutely obsessed with VR and it's future, and I love what Sam and the rest of Admix are trying to do here. Wish you guys the best of luck!
Also, since this is an AMA, I'll take advantage and ask a question as well! When do you guys see the VR/AR market maturing to the point of mass-adoption?
Kinoxciv4 karma
Everyone is seeing this in a very negative light, and while I'm definitely not a big fan of advertising, I don't think the service Sam plans to provide is bad at all. It certainly isn't the EA-esque consumer-unfriendly hell many seem to see it as.
The two concerns seem to be:
Ads in games suck; this is everything bad about modern gaming
Yea, ads do suck, but if they're smart about what they do, they could actually fix the current state of advertising in F2P games. Greedy companies are going to want to stick ads everywhere in VR/AR. Think interstitial ads in mobile games are annoying now? Imagine playing a VR game, dying, then being immediately loaded into a virtually constructed kitchen.
Text pops up in your field of view: "Pour yourself a delicious bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios to continue playing! Check your pantry!"
That's the type of intrusive advertising that will be possible with VR/AR - if it proves possible.
On the other hand, if Admix can get ahead of the curve and test non-intrusive in-game advertising - like putting an ad on the panels in Rocket League - and publish their research proving this is a more effective strategy for advertising, they could shift the entire industry in that direction.
I know ads aren't fun, but they're inevitable, and if the choice is between massively intrusive VR ads, or minimally intrusive ads built into the game world, the choice seems clear.
Now onto the other concern...
VR is a premium consumer space; F2P games won't be popular there
This is just short-sighted. The Oculus Go ($199) is already doing excellent numbers sales-wise, and the standalone Oculus Quest ($399) is launching within a couple of months, no PC or console necessary. Prices are going to keep dropping, and adoption is going to keep rising. That's not even mentioning the multiple consumer-ready AR headsets and devices that will be hitting the market within the next decade. So no, the market isn't there yet; I mean, of course it isn't. If Admix were the first to introduce non-intrusive advertising to a market that was already matured to the point of needing it they would've just raised 200 million, not just 2. This is a play for the future, not the present.
Sorry about the essay above, I'm just absolutely obsessed with VR and it's future, and I love what Sam and the rest of Admix are trying to do here. Wish you guys the best of luck!
Also, since this is an AMA, I'll take advantage and ask a question as well! When do you guys see the VR/AR market maturing to the point of mass-adoption?
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