Ubisoft blames 'technical error' for showing pop-up ads in Assassin's Creed

Ubisoft is blaming a "technical error" for the fullscreen pop-up ad appearing in Assassin's Creed Odyssey this week. Reddit users say they've noticed a pop-up on the Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game, an ad that appears when navigating to the map screen. Summarizing the general sentiment against such pop-ups in the middle of gameplay, one Reddit user commented, "Disgusting to experience this while playing."

"We are aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin's Creed titles yesterday," Ubisoft spokesperson Fabian Darrigues says in a statement to The Verge. "This was the result of a technical error which we fixed as soon as we became aware of the problem."

While it was initially unclear why the game suddenly started showing Black Friday pop-up ads to promote the latest editions of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, the publisher later explained in a post on X (formerly Twitter) What went wrong? Ubisoft says it was trying to insert an advertisement for Assassin's Creed Mirage in the main menu of other Assassin's Creed games. However, a "technical error" caused the promotion to appear on the in-game menu. Ubisoft says the issue has been resolved.

We've recently seen Microsoft using fullscreen Xbox pop-up ads to promote their games, and they're annoying Xbox owners. Microsoft's ads only appear when you boot up the Xbox, and it seems not everyone is getting them. Microsoft and Ubisoft's pop-ups are still a far cry from the ads we're used to seeing on game consoles. We've seen games like Saints Row 2 with ads on billboards from the mid-to-late 2000s, or EA Games titles with lots of in-game ads.

Fullscreen pop-up ads in the middle of games are certainly not common. Imagine a game world that you paid $70 for and then ads start appearing in the middle of gameplay. I really hope that Ubisoft's "technical error" never becomes a reality of the game industry.

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