Oh, how I wish this was just a rumor gone wild. But sadly, no, it isn't, as you can see for yourself with this copy of the filed patent.
Sony's new patent is for quite possibly the most in-your-face advertising method for gaming in existence. In the middle of your game, it will be paused for a brief ad display. Once its commercial time is up, the game will resume. We can only hope to God that these breaks will be at logical parts of the game, and not during a sudden ambush. Controllers would fling through windows like they never had before.
No, wait, that's the wrong thing to hope for. We need to hope that this never comes to fruition. You want to place ads in the XMB like Xbox does with its dashboard? That's fine. Really, it is. I'd even be okay with commercials in games before the opening prologue (like seeing movies in a theater), but do not interrupt my game. I love Sony and I love the PlayStation, but if this happens, I will make the complete switch to Xbox. Please don't make me do this.
