Valve Pens In-Game Ad Deal for Counter-Strike

Making the (now fondly remembered) Subway Counter-Strike ads a reality, Valve has inked a deal with the content pusher IGA. An article at GamesIndustry states that this may be the biggest in-game ad deal ever, as this still insanely popular title racks up something like '5 billion player-minutes each month' From the article: "'As the world's premier online action game, Counter-Strike's player minutes exceed its closest competitor by more than 100 per cent,' said Doug Lombardi, marketing director for Valve. 'Additionally, Counter-Strike rivals many of the current top ten watched shows on American televisions. For instance, a top ranked, one hour, weekly program garners 20 million viewers and results in approximately 4.8 billion viewer minutes per month. Conversely, Counter-Strike generates over 5 billion player minutes in the same period of time. And, nobody fast-forwards through any part of Counter-Strike,' added Lombardi."

Wth?

[Misanthrope]

Where can I sign up to get my money back?

Late 2006 blunder?

[PoderOmega]

Wow, this one just missed the "Gaming's Biggest Blunders of 2006" article. So Valve got pissed when someone with a CS server put in Subway ads, and I am sure it is because Valve had something like this in works for a while. I think that if someone is running a server that sells Valve's games, Valve should let the servers collect revenue on these ads. I can't tell from the article if this is the case, but I assume Valve is collecting all the revenue for themselves (how would they do that anyway? do all the servers have to register with value to be available in steam?).

Many people have said it, but here it comes again. Ads are fine if they are not intrusive and make sense. On top of that, make the freaking ads destructible. I don't want to drop a grenade and have the whole area singed but the Pepsi ad is shiny and new.

Alt-Tab

[WaXHeLL]

"And, nobody fast-forwards through any part of Counter-Strike,' added Lombardi."

Instead of fast forwarding, I just alt tab out if I die early in a match.

Re:History repeats itself

[Thraxen]

Add to the list...

Remember when you could pay for a theater movie and not have to watch any advertising other than for upcoming movies?

I didn't mind the movie previews, but now we have to watch a bunch of Coke, Fanta, and car ads before the movie previews. Was my $8 movie ticket, $3.50 drink, and $4.00 popcorn not enough?

I also hate the fvcking ads on DVDs these days... especially the ones that try and prevent you from skipping them. WTF? I paid for the damn movie, not a bunch of ads.

Re:Rape me

[MindStalker]

You work for an ad agency don't you?

Let me make this simple. If you edit a game I ALREADY bought, in order for you to generate future revenue from it without my approval (and if I don't approve I lose the game I paid for) I will be upset.

Clear enough?

Ads in games? Lower price then.

[NeutronCowboy]

Other people already pointed this out, but I'd like to emphasize this: if I see ads in my game, they a) better blend into the environment
b) significantly reduce the cost of the game

If I would have seen Subway or Pepsi ads in Skies of Arcadia similarly to how they were implemented in CS, I can guarantee you that I would have tossed it out very quickly. Those ads would have completely destroyed what is a very-well crafted and coherent universe.

Furthermore, I would not expect to pay full price for the game. Take the BK games for example: 3.99 for silly games, but competent games that are essentially one big-ass ad. I can live with that. I probably won't buy them because they're not my cup of tea, but at least I know what I would be getting myself into: a giant ad for Burger King. There is no surprise there.

However, I have the strong suspicion that the ads in CS are going to work very differently: most likely, they'll just be images of current billboard ads or newspaper inserts. Furthermore, since all Valve games need to phone home, they'll be part of a mandatory patch to an existing game. The end result of this is that I'll be looking at badly misplaced ads in a game for which I paid full-price initially, and which I bought with the understanding that there would be no ads in it.

oolo; Piss off, Valve. That's not the way to go about it. Sometimes I think that Marketing execs need to put into a torture chamber for some of their ideas. Just so that they get some decency conditioned back into them. "What's that, Fred? You think we ought to use cartoon characters in our cigarette ads? On with the thumb screws!" I think that'll solve 90% of the problems with advertising. Then again, it assumes decency being part of a CEO's moral makeup.

Re:Rape me

[lachlan76]

Valve sell Counter-Strike Source separately as well. As for people who got it with Half-Life 2, they in no way received it for free. It is owned by Valve, and it is advertised as part of the product (Half-Life 2).

In what way is a piece of software free if the company that owns it requires you to buy it on its own or with another product?