Microsoft looks to be planning some sort of interactive advertising service for Kinect that will let players engage with third-party ads while they play their games.

"Punch this monkey in the junk and win a free iPod!" We've all seen those ads flash across our screens at one time or another, promising great rewards for accomplishing feats of skill that the average three-year-old could pull off with one hand while she watches Dora. Now it looks as though the next generation of such advertising is on the way and it even has its very own sexy name: NUADS.

NUADS, according to a U.S. trademark filing made by Microsoft last week, is "Advertising services, namely, promoting and marketing the goods and services of others through online interactive video games by enabling consumers to interact with third-party advertising content through voice or body gestures via computer game console and sensor devices."

Not a whole lot of detail there but it sounds more or less like Microsoft is trying to cook up a way to make in-game advertising more effective, palatable or perhaps just outright unavoidable by integrating it into the Kinect's motion and voice-sensing functionality. Whatever it is, it's hard not to think that the final result will be essentially the same monkey-junk-punching nonsense we've seen for years on the web with the added excitement of idiotic arm-flailing.

Boy, I can't wait.

Source: TechCrunch