Xbox LIVE Rumored to Include Ads by End of 2009

Word on the street is that Xbox Live has plans to include ads on their dashboard before the end of 2009. Microsoft announced earlier this year that "Silverlight-powered media on Xbox will have the same appearance as ads seen on a Web browser. Think technology that competes with Flash, only supported by 6 million Silverlight developers worldwide who now have the option to tap a variety of Microsoft tools and technologies and develop marketing campaigns for Xbox," reads a report on Media Post.

While some see this announcement as an impending doom, others see it as a glimmer of hope. The assumption of some is with the addition of paying advertisers, the result will be free Xbox Live Gold access to all. Still others hope that the ad feature will, at the least, have a disable function so as not to ruin the $50 a year experience.

The ideas are plenty and the answers are few. The only thing we can do is hope Microsoft will be kind to us faithful subscribers and not shove endless amounts of ads down our throats.