Windows 11 is promoting Xbox PC Game Pass with a pop-up ad

Microsoft is displaying yet another ad on Windows 11. This time, a pop-up banner promotes the company’s Game Pass subscription for PCs.

I’m a fan of Xbox PC Game Pass, it is a pretty cool service that lets you play a lot of games, including new launches, without breaking the bank. But, there are better ways to promote it than with a pop-up that users might consider annoying. How many different types of ads have we seen on Windows 11?

Here’s a quick recap, the operating system shows ads for Xbox Wireless Controllers, Bing AI, Microsoft 365, and more. There are ads in the Outlook app, the Start Menu, File Explorer. Of course, we mustn’t forget all those recommendations for Microsoft Edge. The Weather app has ads in it. Even the Microsoft Store also displays “suggestions” on the homepage, which are just ads, but at least that is restricted to the app. How many of these products might actually be useful for a user?

Microsoft says that these pop-ups are not ads

Let’s back to the Xbox PC Game Pass ad. Believe it or not, according to Windows Latest, a Microsoft spokesperson told the blog that these pop-ups are not classified as ads, instead these notifications are considered as tips and suggestions. It’s up for debate as to what qualifies as an ad and a recommendation.

Interestingly, the spokesperson also told the blog that the alerts give people an option to purchase Call of Duty Black Ops 6: Vault Edition from the Microsoft Store, or to download the Microsoft Defender app. Before you ask, no this is not the same app that is preinstalled on Windows 11, the antivirus on your PC is called Windows Security. Microsoft Defender is a security dashboard of sorts, and it’s not free.

Microsoft says that these pop-ups are not ads

So, a notification for Xbox PC Game Pass is a suggestion? Even if it is meant to highlight a specific game, its purpose is to promote a paid product. Microsoft can sugarcoat it however it wants to, but that’s literally what advertisements do, they are a marketing tool to spread the word about things that a company sells. That’s exactly what the company has been doing over the past few years.

This ad or notification, whatever you want to call it, has a button to dismiss the pop-up, and another button “Join Now” clicking on which directs you to the Microsoft Store page where you can buy/subscribe to PC Game Pass. Don’t want to see these notifications? You can turn off ads in Windows 11 by following our guide.

It’s not the first time we have seen such ads in Windows 11, remember when Microsoft placed ads for Game Pass in the Settings app? I’m a gamer, and occasionally use Game Pass, but even I think these banners are unnecessary. The service has become quite popular among the gaming community. If you are a gamer, you are probably aware of Game Pass, and you are either subscribed to it, or choose not to. My point is, these pop-up ads offer very little value. This does make me wonder how non-gamers perceive these ads, perhaps they are even more annoying, aka completely irrelevant to their usage.

What do you think about such ads?

Summary