Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Valve Angry Over Counter-Strike Subway Ads

Posted by Zonk on from the eat-fresh-lead dept.

Gamepocalypse writes "I noticed over on GamePro that Valve is considering legal action over the Subway ads that Engage In-Game Advertising was pumping into Counter-Strike matches. Valve's Doug Lombardi: 'Advertising or any other commercial use of our games requires our written permission.'" I'm unclear on this: Were the ads actually in the game already, or was the company just saying they were going to put the ads in? If the ads were displayed in-game, how was that done without Valve's knowledge? If the ads weren't in the game ... why would you make a public claim like this without clearing it with Valve first? Odd all around.

4 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. ridiculous by abandonment · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is ridiculous. There are hundreds of commercial server rental places that have in-game ads splattered all over CS servers and have for years.

    Just because it's a non-CS commercial company that's doing this is irrelevant.

    When we hosted CS servers a few years ago (pre 1.5 / steam), we were trying to figure out how to do the same thing. Considering how much money running game servers costs, bandwidth-wise, I don't see how Valve really has any say in the matter.

    They should be happy to have server-operators willing to host their games, and if the gamers themselves don't care about the in-game ads to help buffer server costs, then so be it.

    It's not like there isn't thousands of servers out there for CS anyways - if players don't like it, then market forces will react appropriately - ie players will go to a different server.

    --
    Gekido's Lair
    1. Re:ridiculous by Jherico · · Score: 4, Interesting
      It's not like there isn't thousands of servers out there for CS anyways - if players don't like it, then market forces will react appropriately - ie players will go to a different server.
      That's not the point from Valve's perspective. If I was providing downloads of a popular TV show and inserting my own commercials in it, the producer of that show would expect compensation. The point here is that someone is using Counter Strike as a vehicle for profit and the creators of the premium content, Counter Strike, are not being compensated. Whether players like it or not is irrelevant.
      --

      Jherico

      What can the average user can do to ensure his security? "Nothing, you're screwed"

  2. Examples by Chabo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here are some examples of advertising in-game. This is inside Valve-made maps, not custom maps.

    --
    Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
  3. howto by joe094287523459087 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    in case anyone was wondering, i was one of the first people to figure out how to do it and i wrote up a detailed howto on how to add these to maps (as well as add spawn points, convert map types, and other things)...

    here's the instructions
    http://www.joe.to/cstrike/ents/