Last week, we informed you about Facebook’s plan to start testing in-headset ads in select Oculus Quest apps, beginning with a low-motion bullet-hell game Blaston from Resolution Games. Apparently, many VR gamers were not happy to see ads in their beloved game because Resolution Games has decided to back away from the Facebook ad test.
“After listening to player feedback, we realize that Blaston isn’t the best fit for this type of advertising test,” stated the developers on Twitter. “Therefore, we no longer plan to implement the test. We look forward to seeing you in the arena and hope you try the Crackdown Update that went live today!”
The decision to abandon the advertising test comes after a wave of negative user reviews crushed Blaston’s rating on sites like Steam and Metacritic. “I honestly never thought some random dev would be so intent on handing the future over to a deranged billionaire and his ad fueled dreams,” commented one Steam reviewer.
Resolution Games remains determined to test in-headset ads in some of its other games, but it will avoid paid games. The first of its free games to display in-headset ads is supposed to be Bait!, a free-to-play fishing simulator that’s already supported by in-app purchases.
It will be interesting to see how the decision to pull Blaston out of the Facebook ad test will influence other developers who have been approached by Facebook, whose reputation has clearly been damaged to such a degree that many gamers want as little to do with the company as possible, let alone let it creep into the virtual worlds they come to love so much.
