Microsoft's aggressive advertising strategy on Xbox has returned with the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, drawing criticism from players who found the takeover ads particularly intrusive this year. Upon booting up their consoles on the game's release day, many users discovered that not only did a large Modern Warfare 4 ad dominate the screen, but it also replaced their custom backgrounds with game-themed visuals.
Fortunately, players can disable this feature. The setting can be found by navigating to Settings > General > Personalization > My Background and unchecking the option for "Show event-themed backgrounds." Nevertheless, the immediate and forceful nature of the ad takeover, which removed personalized backgrounds without consent, has irked a segment of the player base who may not be interested in the title.
This trend of increased advertising within gaming ecosystems appears set to continue. Xbox is currently testing an ad-supported, free version of Xbox Cloud Gaming, a move that has met with disapproval from some users. Matthew Ball, Xbox's chief strategy officer, has expressed a belief in expanding advertising within gaming to address what he calls the "two-sided problem" of escalating development costs and consumer reluctance to pay higher prices for games.
Beyond Xbox, other major publishers are also exploring in-game advertising. Electronic Arts has introduced its EA Advertising platform, which aims to integrate advertisements directly into gameplay. Meanwhile, Modern Warfare 4 itself has been met with generally positive reception, holding an 84 on Metacritic as of this report, with reviews praising its campaign, DMZ, and multiplayer modes.