Resolution Games, the developer of VR shooter Blaston, has declared it's pulling out of a test for in-headset advertising after negative player feedback. The studio will instead look into displaying these ads within a free game "sometime in the future".
Why has Resolution Games pulled out of in-app ads for Blaston?
This news comes via a tweet posted by Resolution yesterday (first spotted by GamesIndustry.biz). In the tweet, Resolution says that it's realized "Blaston isn't the best fit" for the type of in-app advertising it was hoping to implement. As such, the studio is dropping all of its plans to incorporate these ads into the game, and will instead look to "see if it is feasible" to include in-app ads for Bait!, its free VR fishing game.
Facebook originally announced that it would be trialing this feature last week. In the announcement, Facebook lists Blaston and "a couple of other developers" as its testing grounds for in-headset ads. According to Facebook, this is a small-scale test "with a few apps" for now, with a view to expanding the program after receiving feedback from devs and the gaming community at large. The negative feedback for in-app ads in Blaston will come as a blow to Oculus and Facebook, who were hoping to explore this feature as a potential extra revenue stream.
What's next for in-headset VR advertising?
While you won't be seeing in-app ads in Blaston any time soon, that doesn't mean they're going away. Resolution Games is still looking at implementing them into Bait!, after all, and Facebook says this method of advertising is a "new innovation" in the industry. Facebook says it's "excited by the opportunity" to introduce in-app ads as a new revenue stream for devs, and that this will also help VR tech to go mainstream in a way it hasn't yet.
We'll have to wait and see what's next for in-app VR advertising. It's likely Facebook and Oculus will lick their wounds for a little while, but it's almost inevitable that this kind of thing will reappear in some form or another. Of course, we'll bring you more on this as soon as we get it. In the meantime, you can grab Blaston on Steam and via the Oculus Quest portal, and you can pick up Bait! for free via Oculus.
How do you feel about in-app advertising in VR games? Let us know in the comments below!
