In an effort to dodge costs related to salaries and development, Splash Damage announced that it would start selling in-game space in their up-coming Quake title, for advertisers who wish to make their products more visible to players.

Neil Postlethwaite, Splash Damage's Managing Director and one of the Producers of Quake Wars, announced on the community site of the game that in-game advertisement (a thriving business where even U2 Irish star Bono is involved) will be one of the many features that will be added to the gameplay, apparently for more realism.

“The ads aren't intrusive and you won't have to interact with them; they'll just be part of the normal environment. In fact, there are some places it's quite odd not to have an advertisement - the sides of container trucks, for example. Great care is being taken to ensure that all our ads are appropriate for the game world and we have absolute approval rights in this area. If it's not appropriate or it's distracting, it won't go in.

The company providing the ad system does not and will not store any personal information or data that otherwise can be used to identify you. All they track is if and how long you look at the advertisements.

For those of you participating in the upcoming beta, you will get a chance to see them for yourself very soon. And of course we will be releasing a demo prior to the retail launch of the game so everyone can check them out first.”
 
Although the decision to place ads inside the game’s maps was a difficult one for Splash Damage, it is expected to provide a higher level of on-going support to the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars community than would have been possible otherwise.