Watching game trailers is a normal thing for any of us to do. But of late, there are these little ads and commercials that precede the actual video before we get to the meat of the visuals.
Most of the time, you can just skip them, but Microsoft has taken out a patent called "Enforcing Advertisement Playback for Downloaded Media Content." Translation: you can’t skip the ads.
The DRM technology will prevent you from seeing downloadable video content until you sit through, (or ignore) the ads before the real video plays. Apparently, the advertisers weren’t satisfied with people buttoning through their multi-million dollar produced commercials and Microsoft is stepping in to help them out.
Most likely, MSNBC will be using this tech for their online shows, news videos and other visual playback material. Will Microsoft start using this DRM (digital rights management) system more frequently for game trailers and other videos on Xbox Live?
The practice of "forcing" viewers to watch commercials before they get to the juicy stuff is irritating but it makes sense for the advertisers because they want to capture our dollars for their products.
But if these restraints are going to be widely used on the game trailers and other downloadable video content on XBL, that doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone will be paying attention.
[via gizmondo austraila]
