Counter-Strike gets in-game ads

By Robert Purchese Published 14 May, 2007

"Gamers a notoriously fickle bunch" - IGA.

Counter-Strike has become the latest game to offer in-game adverts of real world brands.

It will play host to a new campaign put together by IGA and Mediacom to promote the launch of the Smokin' Aces DVD.

The adverts themselves appear as posters on walls in various different locations in the game, and will enjoy more than five billion minutes of playtime generated by the game each month. Head into our Counter-Strike: Source gallery to see what to expect.

IGA believes that Counter-Strike's audience is the perfect target for the product, and that gamers are sure to respond to it.

"Gamers are a notoriously fickle bunch," begins Justin Townsend, CEO at IGA. "But through careful contextual guardianship at the point where game IP meets brands and their values, we have created a fantastic campaign that gamers are sure to respond to."

"We know from research that gamers crave real world brands as part of the game experience."

It's interesting that a company of such renown as Valve has decided to integrate marketing in its games, although it's unclear whether we'll see it in the likes of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portals, and Team Fortress.

It also marks out in-game advertising as a sector that's continuing to gather steam. Arf. What do you think about it Eurogamer reader? Does it enhance or ruin your experience?

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (64) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Sir_TimAlot #1 5 years ago

    yay, can't wait........ i can wait really i was just lying but don't tell anyone

  • souljacker2000 #2 5 years ago

    Does it matter?? Smokin' aces was a pile of shite

  • robg #3 5 years ago

    Yeah well it's ads, it's never going to enhance the game, but they may be liveable-with. Which is the best they can expect.

    Of course if they aren't liveable-with then as the article states, gamers are a notoriously fickle bunch, and will probably simply move elsewhere. Which may save Valve quite a lot of bandwidth costs regarding maintaining giant server lists and all sorts, so perhaps it's quite good for them if this happens to a game that probably doesn't generate them any revenue.
    Edited by 1 at 14/05/07 @ 12:27

  • Hunam #4 5 years ago

    I like that he says Gamers are fickle, yet his ads are going into a game thats been played constantly for the last 6-7 years.

  • rauper Verified Managing Director, Eurogamer Network #5 5 years ago

    Jeremy Piven for president!

  • rauper Verified Managing Director, Eurogamer Network #6 5 years ago

    And: I'm sure if any community will find a way of modifying the game to block the in-game ads, it will be Counter-Strike players!

  • GrandpaUlrira #7 5 years ago

    They stand out because the resolution of the texture is so much higher than everything around it.

  • El_MUERkO #8 5 years ago

    Have you seen the size of them in the Pics! FFS Valve have some fucking standards.

  • aine #9 5 years ago

    was it just me who saw "IGA" and thought of the Castlevania bloke, then?

  • lambtron #10 5 years ago

    weak :(

  • patriot #11 5 years ago

    Why does it say "counter strike source gallery". Thats 1.6 not source. Although I expect it to be pushed to source games as well.

  • skillian #12 5 years ago

    What the hell EG?

    Those are screenshots of Counter-Strike 1.6, not Counter-Strike Source. And you use the terms interchangeably in the story. Do these ads apply to both games? I'm guessing so.

    No wonder they look so out of place with the low-res textures.

    edit: ya what he said.
    Edited by 1 at 14/05/07 @ 12:43

  • dr_faulk #13 5 years ago

    AH, sure why not. As long as the advertisement does not detach from the reality of the in-game situation, there's no harm. (i.e. a poster for the movie outside on the wall in cs_office wouldn't be too bad. might look stupid in the middle of an office).

  • the_dudefather #14 5 years ago

    holy crap they look awful, maybe a fw faded looking posters would have been nice, but these don't blend in

  • seasidebaz #15 5 years ago

    I can just see it now...

    Blasting around de_dust when suddenly you turn through the tunnels and see a McDonald's advert.

    I know McDonald's get everywhere, but in the middle of a warzone?

    In-game ads like these have no real place due to a lack of context. Genres that are renowned for having ads in their real-world counterparts will benefit from the ads, but I don't remember seeing anyone on BBC reporting from Iraq with a big picture behind them from some corporate behemoth...

  • Valver #16 5 years ago

    Server side variable "adverts=0" please ;)

  • Salvia #17 5 years ago

    Way to ruin the sense of immersion, knobheads.

    "Gamers are a notoriously fickle bunch," begins Justin Townsend, CEO at IGA. "But through careful contextual guardianship at the point where game IP meets brands and their values, we have created a fantastic campaign that gamers are sure to respond to." - Meaning "We'll stick them in anywhere as long as someone gives us enough money and we'll ignore the users' complaints"

    "We know from research that gamers crave real world brands as part of the game experience." - Lying bastard. Idiots may crave them but I doubt very much that gamers (i.e. people who love, live and and breathe games) do.

  • useyourloaf #18 5 years ago

    Unless there has been very resent developments, in game ads are 1.6 only. It's a ~7 year old game that's been very well supported for free over the years.
    Be nice if the server admins/owners got a little of that money though.

  • CrawlingKingSnakes #19 5 years ago

    I won't play CS:S again if it carries in game adverts.

    Never touched Wipeout 2 for same reason, though I've bought all the others.

    Also, isn't this a pretty cheeky, as we've already bought the game without wretched adverts?

  • LittleVoice #20 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:03:32 01-02-2012

  • GrandpaUlrira #21 5 years ago

    One thing I would add is that done correctly, in the *right* games and with a large variety of appropriate ads, I think it can add to the "real world" atmosphere. But done like this... ugh.
    Edited by 1 at 14/05/07 @ 13:29

  • Paukl #22 5 years ago

    I guess they're fine as long as they don't detract too much from the immersion, e.g. seeing a Pepsi vending machine in a shooter set in, say, an office block, would be fine, playing a level 'brought to you by Pesico!' would not be.

  • Toothball #23 5 years ago

    @disc

    How do ingame advertisements enhance your gaming experience? Wonderful.

    I suppose there are a couple of cases where this might be true. Here's one:

    I live in Edinburgh, and also played a lot of Project Gotham 2 which featured Edinburgh. Driving past bus stops with adverts on them in the same place they are in real life was good, but after several months the game image stayed the same, while the real life advert had changed several times. I can't say I would mind adverts like these Counter Strike ones used in those bus stops.

    Not that it would make all that much difference anyway, as there's plenty of scaffolding and things in game that aren't there in real life now either. So this would be a pretty small enhancement to the experience, but nothing you couldn't live without.

  • simiankid #24 5 years ago

    My favourite bit about this mini-fiasco is that, to top it all off, Smokin' Aces is a big pile of utter bobbins.

    Quite what it's writer/director Joe Carnahan was smokin' between Narc (which was good) and the aforementioned bobbins (which is bobbins) is a mystery.

  • agparrot #25 5 years ago

    Which gamers crave ingame adverts?

    I'd like a list of their names and addresses, please... then we can pop round and ask them what sort of drugs they were on when they filled in the forms that must have been used for this 'research'.

    All that codswallop-talk on the Sony release a while ago to do with Home - how advertising would be pitched at an 'acceptable level'

    Might be time for me to find a new hobby that isn't about to be riddled with vacuous corporate bullshit - maybe morris dancing, or basket-weaving.

  • dudefella #26 5 years ago

    Not such a huge issue for me in multiplayer, but if stuff like this appears in immersive single-player games like Half-Life 2, I'ma be pissed. It ruins the immersion and the experience. I'm in City fucking 17, I don't wanna see an ad for a shitty movie.

  • skillian #27 5 years ago

    useyourloaf: Unless there has been very resent developments, in game ads are 1.6 only. It's a ~7 year old game that's been very well supported for free over the years.

    Yes, from what I've read this is for 1.6 only.

    Maybe update your story? This could get millions of people very annoyed unnecessarily...

  • Toothball #28 5 years ago

    @disc

    That is true. I never really pay much attention to bus stops anyway. An country road is a nice place to drive without ads, but cities are full of them, and I happen to like street racing games. And they are selling them on the details.

    It just feels like the city is frozen in time when these things don't change. Perhaps fake ads that update every so often would be the best thing. That way, we get details and no advertising.
    Edited by 1 at 14/05/07 @ 13:43

  • AcidSnake #29 5 years ago

    As far as I'm aware from people I know and posts here, most opinions are on the indifferent/opposed section...
    I'm indifferent...If they use it like they're used in real life (that bus-stop for instance) then fine...Otherwise it might ruin the experience...

    Plus that money will never get shuffled to consumers anyway...Pay for full price games and added adverts?...No thanks...

  • Nithron #30 5 years ago

    I can't wait to see the complaints when large crowds of armed terrorists turn up at cinemas across the country to watch Smokin' Aces

  • Lacero #31 5 years ago

    An country road is a nice place to drive without ads, but cities are full of them, and I happen to like street racing games. And they are selling them on the details.

    So, because your real life is full of intrusive ads games should be too because it's more realistic? I'd prefer the other option.
    Edited by 1 at 14/05/07 @ 13:49

  • LittleVoice #32 5 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:03:32 01-02-2012

  • ecureuil #33 5 years ago

    Christ! I expected it to be done tastefully, and subtly. First thing I see is a HUGE advert on the wall of dust2, what the hell!? Where am I going to spray my porn tag now? :(

  • dsmx #34 5 years ago

    Ads in games if done in context do enhance game play as it makes it feel more realistic. So billboards yes, bus stops yes, vending machine fronts yes but in counterstrike no. No matter how you spin it, adverts in counterstrike just doesn't fit in with the game.

  • mkreku #35 5 years ago

    I don't really mind if the ads are made in the same style as the game and are non-obtrusive. But if it's anything like the ads seen on websites.. geez. I mean, before I was using Firefox, it always annoyed me how long it took to load certain webpages. The time it took was usually because the page first loaded a huge bunch of ads from various slow-ass ad firms. THEN it continued to load the page that you wanted in the first place. With Firefox I've installed Adblock Plus and those old pages are now lightning fast! Eurogamer included!

    If the game becomes slower because it has to load ads I'd demand my money back :|

  • skillian #36 5 years ago

    Valve have been trying to get people to move away from 1.6 and onto Source for years. This is one way of doing it I suppose...

  • spongebob #37 5 years ago

    I don't think ads can ruin a game that is not narrative driven at all and resembles a sport. In fact, well thought advertising doesn't even ruin a single player experience, no matter how heavily it relies in immersing story.

    But on a more general level, humankind needs less marketing :)

  • Toothball #38 5 years ago

    @Lacero

    So, because your real life is full of intrusive ads games should be too because it's more realistic? I'd prefer the other option.

    True, the fewer ads the better really. If they started including billboards in Mario Kart or something, I'd be at the head of the pitchfork-wielding crowd, wielding a pitchfork. But when they're selling a game based on how "realistic" it is, I can't say that I'd mind a little real world advertising.

    But cases where this applies are few. It might work in sports games, with all those advertising things they have, or the office vending machine example. I haven't looked at the Counter Strike ones, but I'd wager that they don't really fit in like that. A movie poster in a warzone? That's about as realistic as a special ops team bunny-hopping their way to victory against the evil terrorists.

  • silver-jon #39 5 years ago

    "But through careful contextual guardianship at the point where game IP meets brands and their values..."

    Oddly enough that's where I, too, stopped listening to this drivel-pushing marketing-pish fartleberry who sounds so inept he probably wouldn't even pass an audition for The Apprentice. I just know that this guy is exactly like Nathan Barley. The original one from TV Go Home, not from the sit"com". Spouting inane jargonistic newspeak in the hope it makes him sound important or bamboozles the audience into thinking he must know what he's talking about and therefore we agree with him.

    So, Townsend, basically you asked a number of your clients' marketing executives whether their children (because let's face it you're all far too busy to waste your time actually playing a game) wouldn't mind a bit of an advert in the game if it made it more "real". Never mind that the point of many games is to join a fantasy world where Gillingham can win the Champions League or you get to enjoy the thrill of combat survival without actually harming anyone.
    They said it would be fine and so that gets translated into "gamers crave real-world brands as part of the game experience". Crave my bollocks.

    Oy, Townsend. I'm talking to you ! Just look at all the posts above this one. Can you see anyone salivating like a starving man at the banquet table begging to be marketed to ? No. You can't, can you. You see a modicum of apathy amongst those who probably feel you can't fight against these things and that something like a branded vending machine in an office is absolutely fine (let's not get onto the argument between corporate social responsibility paternalism versus freedom of consumer choice at this stage). I seem to remember in an FPS years ago (was it Duke Nukem or Half Life ?) that a vending machine could be damaged, with cans spilling on the floor. It didn't matter that they were just cans. I didn't give two shakes of a rats foreskin as to whether they were Coke, Pepsi or Quattro (for the under-twenties a soft drink popular in the 80s - but not popular enough to see it into the 90s). Just the immersion in a world that followed "real" physics was the key.

    bear in mind I'm ranting about advertising in FPSs or any "fantasy" type game. Fantasy as opposed to simulation (IE: driving game, sports sim, etc where the advertising is a key part of the immersion).

    Oh, and as a final shot - who's been to a Middle East town recently where a number of walls were daubed with a poster for an American film ? Realism ????

    Realism my bollocks. It's all about the money.

  • WestBullet #40 5 years ago

    That looks terrible. Glad I got over my CS addiction!

  • Gulag #41 5 years ago

    "We know from research that gamers crave real world brands as part of the game experience."

    Wow, that guy has huge testicles. Pity he's talking out of his ass.

  • Altrezia #42 5 years ago

    It'll be OK if the games get cheaper because of it.

    But they wont.

  • PearOfAnguish #43 5 years ago

    Oh, Mr Townsend, it's not so much that 'gamers are a fickle bunch' than it is 'they don't like to have advertising shoved in their face when they're trying to enjoy a game'. Particularly advertising that's so jarringly out of place.
    Edited by 1 at 14/05/07 @ 15:01

  • nickthegun #44 5 years ago

    "Gamers are a notoriously fickle bunch,"

    Joins "I think we need a bigger boat" ain the pantheon of legendary understatement.
    Edited by 1 at 14/05/07 @ 15:37

  • urban #45 5 years ago

    i can understand one or two, but that really is taking the piss, they may as well replace the texture for dust to DVD release.

  • Iora #46 5 years ago

    Thats pathetic... Im pretty sure having those daft images painted throughout my favourite map will only give birth to an unquenchable rage. I believe this rage will focus solely on this shitty movie.......at least for a short time.

  • dredd97 #47 5 years ago

    Sorry folks, this is just the start, the thin end of a *very* thick wedge...

  • Carpathian #48 5 years ago

    Ads for things around now that fit into a gaming world also set supposedly around now are actually more likely to add to realism. Walk to work or wherever and see how bombarded you are.

    Ads for things completely out of context to the time period or location of the title will jar you out of the game believability faster than anything else.

    Besides, with it being on the PC somebody will have a patch to lose/replace the ads within a short time........

  • The_Benny #49 5 years ago

    ""We know from research that gamers crave real world brands as part of the game experience.""

    More likely than a straight choice is that people were given a more subtle choice between something like 'realistic' - real brands that enhance the realistic setting - and 'fake' - fictional brands. Any question that simply asked 'Do you want in-game ads' would end up with a vast majority of no votes simply because nobody really likes adverts, be it in the middle of whatever they're watching on TV, flashing at them on websites or simply plastered on walls and billboards about town.

    That said, there are probably people who would welcome lower prices in exchange for ad-supported content, or some of that money being passed on to people running dedicated servers.

  • YourMessageHere #50 5 years ago

    In-game ads were part of why I gave up on BF2142. I wasn't thrilled when they announced it but I thought it might be OK if they did as they promised and tried to get them working in context. When the placeholders appeared, they were OK, nothing to be worried about; they fitted the game context.

    Then one day they were all suddenly Intel ads that said things like "multiply your battlefield assault" and completely destroyed the context and atmosphere of the game. Might as well have said "You are playing a game". As someone said, putting a couple of billboards up in cities might be an acceptable idea, but plastering them on every available surface in a middle-east town as the shots show is far from what i barely comprehend "contextual guardianship" being intended to mean (I'm in the middle of writing a sociology essay, my brain is sadly attuned to that sort of talk at the moment).

    As for craving real world brands, no. Just lies. If a drinks machine in-game says Coke on it, fine, if it says Nuka-Kola on it, also fine. It's scenery, it's not really important is it? Yes, there are realistic reskins of CS:S vending machines out there, but it's a bit of a giant extrapolation of what you want to think to say "gamers crave them". If you're going to do that sort of thing, I much prefer parodies of real brands, a la GTA and its Didier Sachs suits and ProLaps sportswear and Mundano saloons.

  • z.e.r.o #51 5 years ago

    My open letter about the issue:

    [link url=http://www.dot-brain.com/2007/05/14 /an-open-letter-about-steam-and-its-future
    ]http://ww w.dot-brain.com/2007/05/14/an-o...[/link]

    Spread the word and let's hope someone at Valve will reply stating their points of view of the problem.

  • z.e.r.o #52 5 years ago

    BTW our clan started to promote a dedicated server strike in Italy. We should get organized to make it a worldwide server blackout, to prove that without community impromptu in-game advertising are as good as nothing. Contact me via my blog.

  • Eighthours #53 5 years ago

    Fine if the ads are suitable for the game involved (ie. bus shelter ads in a GTA game.) Stupid otherwise - could pull you right out of the game world if Coke was suddenly advertised on a Forerunner ship.

  • Hell_Toupee #54 5 years ago

    Those screens also appear to show the map Aztec, which if memory serves me correctly is a map that takes place around an Incan temple, not the kind of place I would expect to find billboards of an American film plastered all over. I’m all for realism in games if realism is what it is the developer is striving for, but this hideous attempt at force feeding gamers advertising and then telling them that it was they who wanted in the first place is taking the piss.

  • Grumbler #55 5 years ago

    There've been ads in CS for yonks, I saw this very advert last week!

  • TimiW #56 5 years ago

    The only thing I would 'crave' with this ingame is a huge spray image to cover this monstrosity!

  • polar #57 5 years ago

    Dear oh dear, that looks fucking hideous. I think I'm genuinely less likely to play CS now.

  • Vandrius #58 5 years ago

    Mleh. If its done tastefully, I don't mind - assuming that it isn't a normal game at the same price. If its FREE multiplayer with hosted servers, then ads - sure.

    Paid multiplayer - go rot and die.

    Singleplayer - depends on genre/world... but I'd better not be paying the same price as if it didn't have ads.

    My main beef would be:
    If I have some giant "COCA COLA" brand logo in the immersive fantasy RPG I'm playing, then I'd revolt decapitate all the devs with the game disc.

  • 3william56 #59 5 years ago

    "gamers are sure to respond to"

    Yep - got that right. With fury and dispair...

    The ads in Wipeout 2097 and G-Police weren't bad. But an ad for something as inexcusably cr*p as Smokin Aces would be a distration - would be too busy shooting at the ad to play the game.

  • RuudVanPistolrooy #60 5 years ago

    On a pad next to my PC I note down all the ads I see in game. Then resolve never to buy any of em on principle. Just hope AMD dont start advertising there since Intel are already on me embargo list.

  • Ed6445 #61 5 years ago

    Advertising in games really gets my goat. Why should we have to be influenced by adverts when we've already paid £30-£40 for the honour of playing the game in the first place? Also, the adverts are often completely out of context and for me ruin the experience. A perfect example is GRAW 2, where you're fighting through the streets of Juarez in Mexico, supposedly in 2013/14, and you see a massive poster for the "New Dodge Challenger 2008." It's ridiculous.

  • blender #62 5 years ago

    I CRAVE BRANDS NOW

  • Whizzo #63 5 years ago

    "It's got what gamers crave. It's got advertisements."

    /with apologies to Mike Judge

  • TheUnionFrag #64 5 years ago

    What a twat. He's calling us fickle? He's going to put adverts in the most popular online game of all time!!?

    What's shocking is that Valve - the dev that stands up for the little guy - must've agreed to this.