Counter-Strike 1.6 ads ahoy!

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 6th March 2007

Gordon and Alyx billboards are now plastered across the walls of Dust2 and Aztec.

The latest update to Counter-Strike 1.6 has made the world's most popular online multiplayer game's advertisements compulsory.

The introduction of in-game advertising into Counter-Strike 1.6 was uncovered back in December, when Valve struck a deal with IGA Worldwide to include ads in the world's most played online multiplayer game. The ads have been in the test phase since the middle of February with an opt-in BETA, but that BETA apparently ended this weekend.

According to CS Nation, the ads have only been rolled out across de_dust2 and de_aztec. These are probably the least suitable settings for well-placed advertisements, unlike cs_office or cs_assault, which would be ideally suited for some IGA action on the billboards.

At the moment, you'll see nothing more than placeholder ads that are advertising Valve's own games. We can expect more diverse advertisements that display other company's products to show up over the coming weeks.

Hopefully, the third party ads will blend into the surroundings a little bit better, because Valve's own ads look rather horrible. Share your thoughts on the new ads in the forums.