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Anyone notice anything with the advertising.

gamespot.com — Isn't this funny. Take a look at Gamespot's PS3 Webpage. The PS3 may have launched, but someone else has taken over all the advertising space.

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  • mizzrym, on 10/12/2007, -0/+90well played
    • leszek, on 10/12/2007, -3/+178NOTICE: you should disable adblock if you want to understand what this is about.
    • llbbl, on 10/12/2007, -78/+4"NOTICE: you should disable adblock if you want to understand what this is about."
      or open up Opera
    • taylorhayward, on 10/12/2007, -64/+8Microsoft = endless supply of money.

      They want this market because they want a HUB in every home. This Hub will serve: movies, tv, software, and even act as the wireless for all your electronic devices including your computer.

      This is their vision.

      The only competition at this point is Google. Also = endless supply of money.

      They are going to try to attach all your home devices to wifi via city wide airwaves. The race is on.

      My money's on Google because people aren't looking for reasons to stop using them. Microsoft on the other hand...
    • PatrickFisher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+86I seriously want to know how much they got paid for this.
    • crgnetworks, on 10/12/2007, -5/+146ps3 got ***** owned.
    • Vouksh, on 10/12/2007, -18/+3@leszek: I wish I would have read your comment before I opened the page. I was going 'wfh is he talking about...' till i remembered I had adblock on...
    • lordmetroid, on 10/12/2007, -12/+5Microsoft has have had a very high concentration of advertisement in Sweden. TV-commercials, almost in-store monopoly on advertisement. They are probably quite scared of loosing sale-shares of the holiday sales to the new consoles.
    • jwyles, on 10/12/2007, -4/+26Oh my! It doesn't get much more "IN YOUR FACE" than that!
    • Four20, on 10/12/2007, -18/+9very cut-throat. i expect nothing less of microsoft
    • DeadWisdom, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14@leszek

      Thanks for the reminder. To me this page is all about how much adblock rocks-it.
    • dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -13/+7*****.
    • theConstruct, on 10/12/2007, -19/+12Considering that /none/ of the gamespot pages /except/ for the PS3 page have the XBox skin (not the PS2 page, not even the XBox page), I'd say this goes beyond "advertising blitz."

      Honestly, for me, whatever credibility gamespot might have ever had as a news and objective review site... kinda goes out the window.
    • pronouncable, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14You don't know the full story, maybe no one at GameSpot actually has control of their advertising as they're owned by CNet, or maybe Microsoft specifically bought ads for that page. The latter sounds more likely.
    • imalteapot, on 10/12/2007, -13/+8Makes sense, game makers have to sell over 500,000 copies just to break even and there aren't even that many PS3 in word wide circulation.

      http://www.i4u.com/article7245.html
    • theConstruct, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2@pronouncable:

      You're quite right that I don't know the full story.

      However, for a site that relies on the perception of at least some semblance of objectivity in its news, previews, and reviews, the notion that perhaps their content is ultimately dictated by their overlords at CNet (who, it seems, can be bought) isn't any better.

      And it's not just that MS "specifically bought ads for that page," because, in addition to all the ad space, GameSpot has sold the page's entire "stylesheet" to MS. (See the standard layout of the other pages.)

      If they're willing to hand over the actual /design/ of their site to the highest bidder, doesn't that call their /content/ into question as well?

      Plus, it's butt ugly. Making the visitor lunge for the close button can't be good for business.
    • theOster, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8holy *****, i almost had a seizure.
    • imalteapot, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2you know what, that's BS! How'd I get buried?? That was a legitimate comment with the source to back it up?!? Of course the studios can't advertise if you don't even have a prospect of breaking even.
    • PunkRampant, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6That's ***** hilarious. Any playstation fanboy that visits Gamespot is gonna keel over and start foaming at the mouth.
    • Four20, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1you mean, only the ones that choose to disable their adblock?
      lol
    • spankaccount, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I don't see ads anymore... On purpose.
  • charlottellama, on 10/12/2007, -8/+62Good to see that even Gamespot knows how things really stack up...
    • Stonedonkey, on 10/12/2007, -35/+2Actually, it was probably an ad sales mistake. It happens every once in a while... although I've never seen it happen to this degree.
    • Grossmont, on 10/12/2007, -3/+36This is actually referred to as a "Roadblock" in the internet advertising business. All ads on the page are for the one advertiser, and they get to change the background or "skin" of the webpage.

      Usually it runs for a 24-hour period, and yes, they are very expensive.
    • Sp0rAdiC, on 10/12/2007, -2/+39@Stonedonkey: I don't think it's a mistake. Look at the URL of the image
      http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/Ads/2061/12/Microsoft_NGN_PS3SkinV2.jpg
    • Stonedonkey, on 10/12/2007, -16/+2OK, so apparently I wasn't clear enough:

      Someone in the sales department at CNET ***** up and sold the ad inventory to Microsoft. I do know what I'm talking about, although that would apparently come as a shock to everyone who dug me down. I am about 99.9% sure that this ad transaction was not made with full awareness on the part of CNET. Believe it or not, these kinds of ad placement mistakes happen. Jeez, you guys :(

      And they can't pull it now because the money's already changed hands.
  • DrakeTheRedEye, on 10/12/2007, -14/+3I've noticed this combo on other sites. If its an article about the PS3, you see 360 stuff. If the article is about 360, PS3 ads show up.
    I understand their point, but thats a dumb way of advertising.
  • Bryantho, on 10/12/2007, -2/+61I suppose it's better than advertising for the PS3 that you still can't... buy.
    • t1t0, on 10/12/2007, -4/+13Edit - reply to wrong comment. Dig down. Why can't we DELETE comments!
  • Denver80203, on 10/12/2007, -23/+7Someone pop the bubble for me.. I haven't seen an ad in years and I'm too lazy to open IE.

    God save Ad-Block!
    • Munkey106, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4Just get the FireFox plugin that lets you have IE tabs.
    • kubix, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16Not too lazy to make this stupid comment... In the time it took you to type that, you could have easily opened IE and viewed the site...
    • PathDaemon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+29Screenshot: http://external.pathdaemon.com/GamespotPS3.png

      EDIT: OK, I'm second. But I prefer my screenshot :D
    • TheTankengine, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Why would you open IE?
      Just right-click adblock -> disable

      Is it really that complicated?

      And the second screenshot is much better. No taskbar + widescreen.
    • PathDaemon, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7...and here's a direct link to the main ad.
      http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/Ads/2061/12/Microsoft_NGN_PS3SkinV2.jpg
    • Denver80203, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Thanks for the screen shots! That was great!

      gads you other people are whiny.
    • carapi, on 10/12/2007, -14/+2I haven't seen an ad in years either. I use IE. And I took less than 2 minutes of set up to achieve this.

      I guess I am just a bit smarter than you.
    • Ranneko, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4Thanks for the screenshot, it automagically redirects me to the Australian gamespot site, where the ad is for Dell.
    • pronouncable, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2"Why would you open IE?
      Just right-click adblock -> disable

      Is it really that complicated?"

      Yes, because after that you have to close it and open it again, then reactiviate it and restart it again. All just to view one page.

      I'll stick to "iexplore [link]".
    • Kuipo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I guess one of the following buttons is broken on your computer then cuz otherwise you could just press [CTRL] + [SHIFT] + B to disable adblock and then press it again to turn it back on.
  • Sirusdv, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15Man... that s AWESOME...
  • Sp0rAdiC, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6Is that website a joke? seriously...
    • interiot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11If you view it at 1920px wide, it's really obnoxious. The column in the middle (that actually holds the content) if fixed-width, so above 1920px wide, more than half the screen gets taken up by the background advert.
    • Sp0rAdiC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5If you run at 800x600 you can barely see the sides of the ads, although I don't know how many people still run that low. I'm at 1280x1024 and it's almost half of the screen.
    • 1773nium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23@Sp0rAdiC: My grandma and 90% of AOLusers.
    • sundancekid503, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Computers have the Internet now too?
  • socokoolaid, on 10/12/2007, -13/+8People still allow ads to show in their browsers?
  • waytoorandomx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19Owned by MS.

    The winner?

    CNET Networks! Yay for large sums of undisclosed ad money used to persuade the masses of mainstream, uninformed youth of America into buying products which may/may not be halfass!
    • waytoorandomx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18As a side note, we just fulfilled Microsoft's marketing strategy behind this "360 adverts on PS3 channel" campaign. Hurray for Digg!
    • pronouncable, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Sony started it.
  • MoeWasHere, on 10/12/2007, -13/+3OOOWWNNNEEEDDD!!!!

    LOL that was roll on the floor funny.
    • 1773nium, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18So then why didnt you........ROFLCOPTA!!
  • bram, on 10/12/2007, -17/+4I didn't notice anything?

    /sarcasm
    • sho222, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17there's no place for sarcasm on digg
  • gthyb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+49brilliant. my respect for microsoft went up a bit, actually.
  • 1773nium, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2O NOES!! Oh SNAP....pwned!
  • naiku, on 10/12/2007, -7/+29http://ps3.justgotowned.com/

    so awesome.
  • RandomEngy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Check the other pages. The PS3 section is the only one with Xbox 360 advertisements, including the Xbox 360 page.
  • tastypastry, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3What are these "ads" you speak of?


    i love Firefox.
  • sundancekid503, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6That is friggin cold! I like it!
  • Ajajadude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10I'm surprised the page didn't burst into flames.
  • xythian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23That's hilarious and quite possible the most pro-MS story on Digg.
    • LordTureis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3to Sony: there is nothing that hating the PS3 won't solve.
  • brickguy, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2If I was Sony I would seriously call this foul play and cut all preview hardware from gamespot. No more before the show freebies. Also if I was the other companies I would seriously take a look at how this same tactic could be used against them.
    • pronouncable, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2GameSpot != Cnet.

      Do you think they actually let them control their advertising?
    • Software2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Yes, they should take their ball and go home. Then Gamespot will only review for the Wii60, and life will be better for everyone.
  • UnleashChaos, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Wow, ***** owned by microsoft, LOL!
  • dregnox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Microsoft advertising Pwnage.
    O my this is really deceptive.
    I kept trying to read about the PS3 launch but my eyes kept drifting to the seXy-box 360 and its new dvd remote control thingie.
    Too bad PS3 doesn't have some flashy, yummy, lime green color in their system to catch peoples eyes in this online advertising smack down.
    That lime green is just so distracting....huh? what was I talking about again?...oooo liiiime....
  • dvord, on 10/12/2007, -8/+0Nothing like trash to frame something nice and bring the beauty of it out.
  • RichesToRags, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3Thats ridiculous.

    Gamespot should realize this makes them look like their nothing, but for sale to the highest bidder. That's a site I'd like to goto and get an impartial review of all that's in gaming. A move like this only makes them look like their out to support whomever has the biggest cash offer.
  • jaweb13, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2So glad I run Adblock in Firefox, cause I don't see it!
  • omglolzhaha, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4http://gamespotpwned.ytmnd.com/
    • 1773nium, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Are you KIDDING me. Richard D. James is the MAN.
    • Derrekito, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why is he being dugg down? Richard D. James is the man!
  • dregnox, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0RichesToRags you bring up a valid point but the people in advertising are not the people writing the reviews. Yes, you are right they are up for the highest bidder in ADVERTISING thats the whole point behind advertising, how else are they going to make any money playing video games and ranking them.
  • withoutamartyr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0That's pretty ballsy. I wonder if there will be a response in kind.
  • wrongwayrob, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Whine, whine, whine. Gamespot is a business. That means they are expecting to make money. If that means Microsoft advertises on The Playstation page, big deal.
  • TwilightKing, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Sony will be fuming when they catch wind of this. MS could proceed to do this on every PS3 board on every major site, and Sony could do nothing (except buy them out). 'Course, 50% of the ads on the IGN Wii Boards are for the PS3, but it's not like there's any chance of those ads converting any of the die hards on those boards. :P
  • interg12, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5i got a headache from this.
  • Microdot, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1what am i missing here? i see the air force ad and background... some site spots for gamespot stuff... i dont really see anything else jumping out.

    what was it... a wii ad or something?
    • vawksel, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Turn off your stupid Ad Block
    • VeganG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Adblock is not stupid.
    • Microdot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Turn off your stupid Ad Block"

      first... im not blocking anything from there.
      secondly... if i were, i damn sure wouldnt turn it off.

      please remove your head from your ass.
  • somesthetic, on 10/12/2007, -7/+2gamespot frequently advertises for the wrong console on their console pages.

    I've seen it a number of times on the psp page with ds ads.
    • vawksel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9It's called, advertising. It's not a mistake. Seriously.
  • dumpling, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This is just funny. Sure MS has tons of money and may abuse that fact at times, but THIS is really really funny to me.
  • SeanFranchise, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Pure pwnage...saw it last night and I'm still loving it!
  • betona, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Makes a lot of sense. You can actually buy an XBox, but PS3? Not so easy.

    BTW, I picked up an XBox 360 today with a $100 rebate at MicroCenter -- pretty decent deal.
  • 5hinmyoken, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1playstation got played for a sucker.
  • p2theny, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1it's called a skin. a lot of agencies do that. kudos to AKQA.
  • emomakesmecry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2definitely looks like the 360 is about to eat the ps3...

    chomp chomp
  • staticneuron, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3Wow.... how desperate.
  • mikeazorin, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2The XBox 360 is probably the best thing that's come of out Redmond since Windows 95.
  • Pelapp, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2WOW! This is the best thing EVER!! I just LOVE this!!! I've looked at it all day!!!!

    I just loooove MS (except when it's Vista. Then i hate them). Boooo Sony!!
  • daridave, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4SONY got OWNED.

    Despite the trio of bad news in less than 24 hours (seems like a trend for that company lately), this is... wait for it... wait for it...

    MICROSOFT HIT SONY'S WEAKPOINT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE !!

    man, that had to be said. and it's true -- SONY's weakpoint really is marketing.
  • krishenn, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1WOW. That is REALLY in your face!! LOL.
  • KiriA500, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0All I saw was a PS3 in the background, just white and with a green circle. :o
  • MalDON, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4You know, this goes with what Blamer said today. "It's going to be a 360 Christmas"
    • Derrekito, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2***** Balmer.
    • KiriA500, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Aside from what Balmer said every other day of the year.

      "Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! (runs out of breath) Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers!"
  • hark, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I am a X BOX 360 owner and a Sony fan...I totally think they need to step their game up by any means necessary, Come on, their advertisements sucks.. price is too high...and supply to small. But i still think the PS3 will be better than the 360.
  • ashepherd, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2The fact that MS went to such lengths to place this ad, tells me one thing: Microsoft is scared to death of the PS3. Their panic is further confirmed by the fact that they chose the PS3 launch date to release Halo3. Regardless of the flaws in the PS3 at launch and the obvious supply shortage, MS is still scared the PS3 will bowl over them. Don't forget, even though Microsoft is...well, Microsoft, Sony is still the 800 pound gorilla in the room. They are top dog in the gaming market. The Sony hardware has superior capability, and they had the foresight to to hold back the release so developers could really dig into the platform to harness it's superior power. The result is that that the PS3 will have about 2-3 times as many games available this x-mas as 360 had last year. Not to mention that these games aren't like the weak launch titles we saw from MS, where the game dev guys were rushed to create something so MS beat could Sony to market. These will be polished, and complete.

    Content is king, and no one knows this better than Sony. If you don't believe me, check out this list of games that Sony has in the works.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_3_games

    (Yes, I know it's wikipedia, but most entries are referenced)

    Many of these will be out in less than a year. And no, they won't have lame texture maps like the early 360 games (think Kameo; fun but it looked like an Xbox 1 game). You see, Sony actually plans to use the Cell processor to its fullest extent.

    Sony is using the same strategy they employed to knock Nintendo off of their throne in the mid 90's. They will release more games, faster, that take better advantage of the available technology, because the developers have had an extra year to work with the platform.

    Mark my words (if you care), PS3 will have eclipsed the XBox 360 in the quantity and quality of it's games by x-mas next year. Once the console cycle really gets rolling, MS just won't be able to compete. Kaz Hirai thinks Sony will control 60% of the market by the time the cycle comes to an end in 2011. I think he's right, but I guess we'll find out together.
  • ZenMojo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Saying Microsoft is afraid of Sony is like saying water is wet. Sony is Microsoft's boogeyman, they are Jason Voorhees, popping up to grab your ankle just when you think that shotgun blast to the chest has taken him out. Sony is a monolith, the badguy, an unstoppable monster battered and bloody and ugly climbing out of the depths of the sea.

    Now, Microsoft was getting high and having unprotected sex and giving wedgies to little children, sure, but they're not undead monsters rising from the depths of the lake to take you down.

    Just listen to Microsoft talk about the gaming business model and it's impossible to avoid the tremor of fear in their tone. Last generation involved them insulting the entire country of Japan, this generation involves them hiring Akira Toriyama to produce a goofy RPG. They were briefly humbled, but every moment is them realizing that there is a storm coming.

    Keep in mind that they have already ingratiated themselves to Nintendo. On the surface this seems like an acknowledgment of camaraderie as they face the giant, but below that surface you know that they are trying to piggyback on what they know will be a successful system. The Gamecube outsold the Xbox...but they suffered to do it. Sony outsold the Xbox...and their system SUCKED by comparison. Microsoft doesn't have a silver bullet, all they have are rumors and spin-control and the first few months of Sony's stumbling. Unfortunately, Sony's stumbling is almost identical to their stumbling last generation and all they did was get a 6 million console lead before the Xbox's release only to finish with several times Xbox's console sales.

    A 6 million console head start ended as NOTHING in the console wars. It really was the next 5 years. Microsoft knows that the first year won't mean jack and it's keeping them up at night.
    • Storm9, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0But the Xbox outsold Gamecube. >.< Unless you are talking about Japan.

      Nonetheless nice writeup. You are right about MSFT, but if sony does not start to focus on software and gaining exclusives, they will see their market share slip rapidly.

      Already the prices of Ps3's on ebay have plummeted. 20gb is going for 550-600.
      The uber demand is gone.
  • supermanred, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2LOLz the PS3 article got owned...holy ***** the amewicans have us surrounded!

    HILARIOUS you have to really concentrate to figure out it isnt an XBOX 360 site.

    OWNED!!!!
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