This is clearly them testing the waters to see how big the backlash will be for even more intrusive ads, plain and simple.
A code error would probably crash the game if it went to pop up something that’s not meant to be there, or at least make it unplayable. This was not the case, and it was clearly meant to be there.
If there is a huge fallout over it, they’ll push the rollout date further back. If people don’t seem to care, which THEY FUCKING DO, then they’ll just push the date up.
Every time I see this shit, I wonder just how satirical the Drink verification can meme will end up being.