Uh-oh. I can hear the grumbles and moans already.

Valve and IGA Worldwide announced a deal this week that will place in-game advertising within Valve's Counter-Strike. The deal gives IGA exclusive access to Counter-Strike, which has millions of users and generates more than five billion player minutes a month, according to IGA. As for Valve, the IGA agreement will give the developer another revenue stream coming off the plentiful river that is Counter-Strike.

"As the world's premier online action game, Counter-Strike's player minutes exceed its closest competitor by more than 100 percent," said Doug Lombardi, Director of Marketing for Valve, in the press statement. "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."

That is true - nobody fast-forwards through a game. But will gamers be turned off when they dive for cover behind some crates and see "Pottery Barn" or "Pepsi" pasted on the boxes? Will Counter-Strike be the same with huge billboards looming in the mountains? There's no word on where the ads will go or what brands will seek to subliminally dominate online gamers, but Valve can certainly expect that some gamers will accuse them of selling out.

As for IGA and in-game advertising, this is huge (for more in IGA, go here). First, snagging Counter-Strike gives the company the golden goose of non-MMORGP gaming. Second, it helps IGA raise its profile among other in-game advertising firm's such as Microsoft's Massive, Inc. And third, Counter-Strike represents arguably the biggest accomplishment yet for the growing in-game ad business. If it works on Counter-Strike, then will we see advertising in - gulp - Half-Life?

Ugh. I just choked on my on vomit...