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Comment by Waterluvian | Hacker News Reader

I am quite angry that my PS4 is full of ads. I paid money for that box.

What I want is a law that requires a product to clearly indicate if it has ads or not in the software, and it cannot change at any point in the product's life. So I know what the price tag actually is.

Edit: I want to be clear. I am not against advertising or the freedom for a manufacturer to decide that advertising is their business model. What I want is to protect consumers who pay for a product that slowly devolves into an advertising box. I am also not expecting my rush-designed law to prevent ads or give consumers more options. All it would do is make it clear to consumers what they're paying for.

Advertising is just another form of payment. Imagine if you bought a smart fridge and 3 years in it required a subscription to use the "smart" part of it. You would be furious.

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Windows 10 has so far served me ads on the lock screen and in the start menu. If I try to search my computer for a file, it also sends that search query to Bing. This OS should be free.

All those things can be easily turned off, but yes, that's not right.

And just as easily, Microsoft will turn them back on for you.

And in fact they do turn them back on. Every fucking time I boot into windows their obnoxious office ads get re-enabled after an update.

I recommend looking into "O&O ShutUp10" and running it at least once - possibly after major updates to Windows as well.

Google does this too with Android. Maps now pops up ads for local businesses every time I open it. I paid money for a phone which did not have ads on it, and now they have added ads via a software update. It's infuriating.

You bought a phone from an advertising company. What did you expect?

Google Maps is primarily a business directory. The map feature is secondary.

Maps is not part of Android. It's a separate app that can be installed on Android. Google requires phone manufacturers to license their apps.

Let's assume that rule is implemented. What are you going to do, not buy a PS4? Your alternatives would be xbox, which has different set of games and likely will also have ads, or Nintendo, which has even more different set of games.

If I knew how annoying that stuff was, I sure wouldn’t have bought my ps4. Absolutely.

Pretty much my only gripe with roku.

The money you paid for your PS4 barely covers manufacturing costs.

And that's our problem... how?

Sony makes money off every video game sale; attempting to get more from ads is just greedy. And how they present the ads as another game a very dark pattern.

>And that's our problem... how?

Isn't it obvious? That's the buyers problem because any time they "buy" something for less than it actually costs, they actually get an ad/app/service subsidized experience.

As I pointed out above Sony has, does, and will continue to make up the hardware subsidy by the markup and money they get on games. That is, there is no need for Sony to subsidize the platform further through ads.

This makes ads on the PS4 a product of greed alone.

This doesn't mean anything in and of itself. Consoles enable other sales-peripherals, games, other software, etc.

And why should I care? If Sony is losing money on each ps4 then it's their problem. It's not like when Amazon clearly made two editions of the Kindle, one more expensive without ads and another cheaper one with them. If I bought the most expensive ps4 version available I should not have the console auto-downloading new games that I might want to try and advertising them on the main screen.

Has it not been that way since the days of the PS1?

The cost of games is like printers and ink. The hardware is the loss leader more than made up for by the "subscription" to those over-priced consumables.

There was anger and upset, and many articles in dead-tree magazines at the change in the expected price of full games, and sheer greed of manufacturers, during the launch phase of those consoles.

Ads were another bait and switch for yet more greed.

That is their problem.

Ads are not an acceptable solution.

By definition, if they are actually accepted by their customers, then yes, they are.

And since customers continue to buy PS4s it appears that they are (accepted).

It's a classic bait and switch. The buyer didn't agree to get a bunch of stupid bullshit ads after they purchased it.

So I assume you turned on the PS4, saw the ads, and returned it?

Yep, exactly. It's a shame how anti-consumer everyone on here has become.

Which Sony makes up for with all the content, network fees and accessories a PS4 owner must buy so that their initial purchase has utility beyond being a $300 Netflix machine.

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