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Facebook is testing ads for its Oculus VR games

Facebook is testing ads for its Oculus VR games

Social media giant Facebook is trialing adverts in its virtual reality games.

In a post on its website, the company said that it is doing a "small test" of in-headset ads for games using its Oculus VR hardware, starting with Resolution's Blaston before coming to some other titles.

This is in order to – what else? – generate more revenue from its VR business, with Facebook saying that this is "a key part" of "creating a self-sustaining platform".

"For now, this is a test with a few apps—once we see how this test goes and incorporate feedback from developers and the community, we’ll provide more details on when ads may become more broadly available across the Oculus Platform and in the Oculus mobile app, as well as guidance for businesses and developers interested in advertising on Oculus," Facebook wrote.

"Ads are most effective when they’re high-quality and relevant—because of that, Oculus ads will follow Facebook’s advertising principles, the first of which is 'build for people first.' It’s also important that people can manage the ads they see, so we’re including controls to hide specific ads or hide ads from an advertiser completely. Users can also access more detailed Ad Preferences from any ad via our 'Why am I seeing this ad?' interface. As our tests progress, we’ll continue listening to feedback to improve the ads people see."


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.