Larry Hryb, director of programming for the Xbox Live network, has said that any ads included on the dashboard won't interfere with the gaming experience.

Responding to yesterday’s announcement that ads would be coming to the service, Hryb wrote on his Major Nelson blog: “I’ve seen quite a bit of discussion today about how we’re bringing Silverlight ads to Live in the future.”

“I need to let you know that you don’t need to worry about a huge influx of ads across the dashboard. One of our core principles is to enhance, not interfere with the gaming experience, and we work directly with our partners to only deliver experiences that are relevant to the Live community."

Summing up, Hryb wrote: “No one on the team wants to turn the dashboard into something that looks like Shibuya Crossing. That’s just not good for anyone.”

Although the Blade Runner-esque visuals that Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing evokes sounds kind of cool to us, we’re a little miffed that MS are insisting on an advertising model for a subscription-based service.