Valve has taken an important step to protect the user experience on Steam. Accordingly, it has introduced various restrictions on in-game advertising. In the update made to the Steamworks developer documents, some advertising models have been officially banned.
Valve bans games with ads for Steam
The new policy updated by Valve prevents developers from using in-game ads as a revenue model. In particular, designs that force players to watch or interact with ads in order to continue playing the game will now be banned on Steam.
Valve stated in the policy statement, “Developers should not use paid advertising as a business model in their games, such as requiring players to watch ads or otherwise interact with ads in order to play the game.”
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However, the company is still open to other forms of marketing and promotion on Steam. Product placement will be allowed as long as it’s not disruptive to the game. Cross-promotion between games will also be allowed. Valve said it won’t charge developers to participate in bundles or access store pages.
Paid ad campaigns that direct users to a Steam store page will also still be acceptable under the new policy. The company’s move is a response to the increasing prevalence of in-game advertising, especially in mobile gaming.
The company aims to protect the PC gaming experience by banning these types of ad models. In recent years, Valve has also banned games that include NFTs and cryptocurrencies.
