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Ubisoft is blaming an unspecified \u201ctechnical error\u201d for a fullscreen pop-up ad that appeared in Assassin\u2019s Creed Odyssey<\/em> this week. Reddit users say they spotted<\/a> the pop-up on Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game, with an ad appearing just when you navigate to the map screen. \u201cThis is disgusting to experience while playing,\u201d remarked one Reddit user, summarizing the general feeling against such pop-ups in the middle of gameplay.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe have been made aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em> titles yesterday,\u201d says Ubisoft spokesperson Fabien Darrigues, in a statement to The Verge<\/em>. \u201cThis was the result of a technical error that we addressed as soon as we learned of the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ubisoft hasn\u2019t explained the technical error, but we can\u2019t imagine the game suddenly became sentient and started adding its own Black Friday pop-up ads to promote Ubisoft\u2019s latest versions of Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em>. Someone at Ubisoft had to code this into the game specifically for the sale this week. We just don\u2019t know whether this was supposed to be a limited test that was somehow made public, or if there were plans to actually roll this out. Either way, the intent of adding pop-ups into the middle of a game you\u2019ve paid for is rather \u201cgross\u201d as one Reddit commenter puts it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We recently saw Microsoft use fullscreen Xbox pop-up ads<\/a> to promote its own games, and they\u2019ve been annoying Xbox owners. Microsoft\u2019s ads only appear when you boot an Xbox, and not everyone seems to be getting them. Microsoft and Ubisoft\u2019s pop-ups are still very different to the ads we\u2019re used to seeing on game consoles. We\u2019ve seen games like Saints Row 2 <\/em>with ads running on billboards, or plenty of in-game ads in EA Games<\/a> titles in the mid-to-late 2000s. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fullscreen pop-up ads in the middle of a game certainly aren\u2019t common. Imagine a world full of games you\u2019ve paid $70 for and then ads popping up in the middle of gameplay. I truly hope that Ubisoft\u2019s \u201ctechnical error\u201d never becomes a game industry reality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n