It is shocking to me... that's the first I see or hear of it. Pay for game, and get ads, even political ads shoved down your throat? Wow. 

Now let's hope EA doesn't publish Dark Souls 3 or something... yeah... I believe we'll get one

Fair Point.

I do believe Microsoft is unfairly demonized, but as one could see in http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=179698, I also believe that Microsoft Xbox gets away with a lot more than its competitors with regards to their respective fanbases, and this politcal ad buisness, which isn't new, and I doubt exclusive to Xbox, should be a point of irritation rather than another thing in the long list of things that have been ignored by MS Xbox's consumers. As OP stated, even if it wasn't MS, it should be seen as a negative, and I'm sure if it wasn't it would blow up albiet for a small period but much more significantly, seeing the reaction to discovery of KZ:SF MP's rendering technique despite the fact that how something is rendered isn't included in resolution which is just display output. People were ready with pitchforks chanting "Sony lied!" about something they{The people} didn't even understand about the rendering technique of a Game Developed by a Second Party studio, but the direct statement from Microsoft about political ads on the XB1, when ads where a signifcant issue of X360's later interface, gets passed off as "not a big deal". And then, when the PS5 is released and the UI is full of ads because the XB1 got away with it, those same people who said its "not a big deal" will be the first ones claiming how Sony (The Failing Company) is greedy and will wonder why they would dare do such a thing. Meanwhile, Microsoft (The company not endanger of failing) gets excuses for why its not using its vast resources to fund more dev studios then Sony.

So yeah.

We get it!!! The Xbox isn't sole a gaming machine no more, its a multimedia box and what's wrong with making a device that appeal for everyone favor, gamer or not. I may not be a Microsoft fan but at least I understand the value of the Xbox brand, Microsoft wants to achive.

X1 is not just a gaming machine, period.
Xbox Live is a service provided by MS and similar services like cable services, you get adverts.
You pay Southwest to transport you, you get to see adverts. You get in a bus you see adverts, you pay ticket to the movies you see adverts.

There are not enough adverts...

I dunno, slayable politicians has a LOT of potential...

There's only one way to protest such an action. Don't buy an MS console, which I won't.

For farming demon titanite, oh yes.

Don't kid yourself. If MS as a company and the Gates foundation were to spend $4 billion combined per year on various philanthropic ventures that would represent only 30% of New Zealand's Public Health budget, and if you consider all forms of social spending it's probably less than 10%. And this is for a country with just 4 million people.

The Gates foundation has total freedom as it is a NPO. But the laws and expectations around spending by a public corporation requires philanthropy carried out by MS to show some sort of return for shareholders. So it's much more constrained and ultimately must contribute to the company's bottom line, and as such would be put under the marketing / advertising / PR, i.e. the primary motivation is self promotion. Problem with that is if/when a particular initiative no longer serves the self promotion purpose it gets cut. The motivation for philanthropy needs to be outward looking and focussed on the people who are the recipients of the benfits not the how the benefactors will benefit.

US govt non-military foreign aid is about $31 billion per year, and EU's is $72 billion. Social spending by governments globally makes that $4 billion chump change, and effectively just feel good and PR spending. That $4 billion is put to good use, most definitely, and with fewer political strings attached (like conservatives not wanting US aid money spend on sexual and reproductive health) it can be more effectively spent. But it's still a tiny amout of money and it would be useless if not combined with both internal government social spending and foreign aid.

As to the topic, advertising in general for non-console related stuff is shitty. When I spend as much as I do I expect to not be exposed to overt advertising for fast food, consumer goods or political campaigns.

The last gaming machine was the Gamecube, every console since then has done more, and even the PS1 played audio CDs.

Defend the adverts all you want, but don't be suprised when this is what the future of gaming becomes. Sony already has a patent on in game video ads similar to that of mobile devices. So when gameplay is interupted by ads don't be suprised when the response you recieve is, "Gaming is a Service".