From CNET: Let's face it: Facebook was bound to put ads in VR eventually. Like collecting personal data, advertising is core to the social network's business model and extends across all of its other apps. Because ad-free VR is clearly an outlier, the company's recently announced plans to test ads in its Oculus VR apps and games felt inevitable. But the developers of the first planned app to test VR ads changed course recently. What will be next?
Ads in VR immediately sound awful, invasive, intimidating, dystopic. For me it brings up thoughts of Max Headroom and ad-injection. Or Blade Runner's hovering holographic ads. O that scene in Ready Player One where IOI head Nolan Sorrento promises to try to maximize all available VR viewing space with ads just short of inducing seizures. The nightmares of ad-overlaid immersive worlds has been plumbed for years, now.
In video games, ads have already found their places to settle. In free-to-play mobile games, they're pop-ups. In Fortnite, they're in-game freebies. In Madden football, they're on the billboards in the stadiums. These moments felt weird once. Now, like with many ads, you barely notice them.
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