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."
Interesting comparison with TV though i must admit, if channels we pay for on sky are allowed to play 10 hours of adverts a day then i cant see why games shouldnt. Not that i like the idea, but i can at least agree with it.
The moment I get piss will be when I go to load up my game and I have to watch a 30 second commercial before I can start playing, or wait for a commercial between loading screens. Not to say that's going to happen, but it seems they're taking a step in that direction.