Microsoft has been running a trial of a new, opt-in marketing idea on Xbox where it's been running Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 ads on the dynamic backgrounds of your console's home screen. For users who like a clean user experience, it's an important change in that the marketing content is taking over your manually curated artwork for a period. However, if you're looking for a decluttered dashboard experience, you have the option to opt out of the program or use accessibility modes to simply cut out the promo entirely.
Opt-out via settings or high-contrast mode to keep custom artwork
The marketing initiative is just that, a marketing initiative, not a system update in general. That's important to note because the integration happens through the Xbox UI, wherein it's stacking event-related art on top of the traditional game artwork. The initiative focuses on the users who are opted into dynamic backgrounds, which are supposed to display occasional thematic content. Microsoft frames it as an opportunity to highlight big game launches, but without compromising the primary navigation experience.
Specifically, the implementation of the functionality is exposed through a toggle in the system settings. You can stop the ad content by jumping into Settings, then General, then Personalization, then My Background. From there you'll be looking for the toggle "Show event-themed backgrounds." That's what's in control of the promotional stuff.
Furthermore, you can completely kill the dynamic background ads if you enable high-contrast mode. It'll give you a more minimalist UI experience with priority on clarity over style.
Aside from the new marketing piece, there were general stability improvements within the system update that landed with the change. In fact, we touched on a lot of the same balance and stability topics during our last Xbox update writeup. The marketing stuff is all new, but it's being offered as an extra layer on top of general system stability improvements. And it's an opt-in feature, so it's really up to you if you want the promo stuff showing up on your home screen.
As Microsoft puts it, the dynamic background ads are an opt-in thing. Basically, it's their way of respecting user choice by letting you fully negate the feature via settings or accessibility. You're still in control of your visual preferences. And you're definitely in control of turning off the marketing functionality to ensure your preferred backgrounds are being shown without being covered up.
Source: TweakTown
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