Friday, April 28th 2017
AMD Backpedals on Quake Champions Promo Link with Radeon 17.4.4 Drivers
AMD made headlines yesterday (27th April), when AMD Radeon users discovered that their GPU driver update places a promotional link to a "Quake Champions" beta signup on their desktops. The Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.4.4 drivers leave a shortcut on your desktop which reads "Quake Champions," and has the official icon. The shortcut, however, points to a URL, which leads to a "Quake Champions" beta signup on publisher Bethesda's website. You can't opt not to see this icon during the driver setup's "custom setup" component selection page. The URL contains a referral extension, which made some people accuse AMD of trying to make money off it, a charge the company denies.
This caused major uproar in social media, with some comments calling it "adware" and AMD losing the moral high ground over NVIDIA, which marketed games through its GeForce Experience app. Sensing a PR fumble on its hands, AMD updated Radeon Software 17.4.4 drivers on its downloads page, which no longer plants the "Quake Champions" shortcut on your desktop. AMD could be testing the waters with how it could monetize its driver updates further. The company, like NVIDIA, already has game banner advertisements in the driver installer. AMD denied that it is making any money off the referral link, and that it is only using referral data to gauge activity.
Could the "Quake Champions" beta signup desktop shortcut be part of a deal AMD struck with Bethesda earlier this year, which sees Bethesda optimize its games for AMD Ryzen and Vega in return for promotions from AMD? This isn't new, as most NVIDIA "The Way it's Meant to be Played" titles work on a similar model of hardware-optimization in exchange for marketing (through driver installers, GeForce.com content, GeForce Experience, and more).
In a statement posted on Twitter, Terry "Catalyst Maker" Makedon, director of software at AMD, apologized for this incident. "Some of you didnt like game icons installed so we just updated the Radeon Software package without one. We heard you. Sorry," he stated. He added that AMD only intended to earn goodwill by giving gamers access to "Quake Champions" closed beta. He then stated that AMD isn't making any money off this, and that it only wanted to gauge consumer interest in Quake Champions and to test if AMD could pursue similar beta offerings in the future.
This caused major uproar in social media, with some comments calling it "adware" and AMD losing the moral high ground over NVIDIA, which marketed games through its GeForce Experience app. Sensing a PR fumble on its hands, AMD updated Radeon Software 17.4.4 drivers on its downloads page, which no longer plants the "Quake Champions" shortcut on your desktop. AMD could be testing the waters with how it could monetize its driver updates further. The company, like NVIDIA, already has game banner advertisements in the driver installer. AMD denied that it is making any money off the referral link, and that it is only using referral data to gauge activity.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Terry "Catalyst Maker" Makedon, director of software at AMD, apologized for this incident. "Some of you didnt like game icons installed so we just updated the Radeon Software package without one. We heard you. Sorry," he stated. He added that AMD only intended to earn goodwill by giving gamers access to "Quake Champions" closed beta. He then stated that AMD isn't making any money off this, and that it only wanted to gauge consumer interest in Quake Champions and to test if AMD could pursue similar beta offerings in the future.
66 Comments on AMD Backpedals on Quake Champions Promo Link with Radeon 17.4.4 Drivers
My only complaint is where's my confirmation email with my goddamn key?!
Meanwhile, in Syria, 10000's of people are murdered by a vicious dictator and nobody gives a flying f***....
The world :banghead:
Big Freaking Deal. lol
Nice. TechPowerUp doesn't seems to have changed this last year. Other sites did change their attitude and they are more balanced when posting articles about AMD. But TechPowerUp continues to scream at AMD, while whispering gently to Intel or Nvidia.
Let's see the newsposter's perspective about GeForce Experience's dial home necessityNo uproar here. First we explain why it is necessary what are the advantages, then we just point to the fact that GFE dials home. But we don't talk about uproars, people on the streets protesting, others threatening to suicide, and we definitely don't give GFE a bad name. No, it's trying to make your preferences portable you silly. It's just another app. Nothing changed, nothing out of the ordinary. And of course, we don't talk about morality here, either.
AMD's stupidity here will be a problem the next time they will do it. But it is funny that all those ads while installing drivers are not a problem, but a shortcut is, because as we all know, a shortcut in the desktop automatically starts a download process and automatically removes from out bank account the cost of that game/application that the shortcut represents.
Now tell me again that you don't see two different standards used here.