Valve is banning products that rely on in-game advertising from Steam, as it sets out some new rules for developers on the storefront. According to the Half-Life and Counter-Strike maker, games cannot force you to watch ads to play them, and any existing games that use this model will have to switch to new monetization systems or be removed from Steam. Valve will still allow for some forms of advertising, however, as long that advertising does not directly impede on the experience of the player.
Valve’s new policy is outlined in the ‘Advertising on Steam’ section of the Steamworks documentation. Here, the company explains what is permissible on its storefront, with particular emphasis placed on the prohibition of forced adverts, whereby players are required to view an advertisement before they can continue playing a game. This business model is popular with mobile and free Steam games – but if you’ve ever downloaded a game on your phone and immediately grown frustrated with the commercials you’re forced to watch, Valve is explicitly forbidding this from Steam.
“Developers should not utilize paid advertising as a business model in their game, such as requiring players to watch or otherwise engage with advertising in order to play, or gating gameplay behind advertising,” Valve explains (via Gaming on Linux). “If your game’s business model relies on advertising on other platforms, you will need to remove those elements before shipping on Steam.
“Developers should not use advertising as a way to provide value to players, such as giving players a reward for watching or engaging with advertising in their game.” As an alternative, Valve suggests developers make their game into a single purchase paid app, or incorporate microtransactions and DLC while making it free-to-play.
While games forcing players to watch ads for access are banned on Steam, Valve does outline what types of promotion it allows instead. Real-life product placement incorporated into gameplay, like soccer sponsorships or brand integration, is fine “provided such portrayals are not disruptive and are appropriate within the context of the game.” Cross promotions like bundles and sale events are also permitted as long as one developer doesn’t charge the other to participate in the offering. Lastly, paid advertising outside of Steam that leads to Valve’s platform is also allowed.
This isn’t the only change Valve has made to Steam recently, as you’ll now be warned about abandoned early access games. If a game is still flagged as an early access release but hasn’t been updated in some time, Steam will now tell you exactly when the last content drop was.
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