Valve has decided to crack down on intrusive advertising in games on Steam by announcing new rules with exceptions. The platform has banned games where players are forced to watch ads or where they block the gameplay.
In the updated Steamworks documentation, Valve notes that no game may require players to view ads to continue playing or to receive game benefits.
«Developers should not use paid advertising as a business model in their game», — Valve’s guidelines state. «For example, requiring players to watch or otherwise interact with ads in order to play, or hiding gameplay behind ads. If your game’s business model is based on advertising on other platforms, you will need to remove those elements before publishing to Steam».
SteamDB in Bluesky added that the advertising policy itself is not new.
«This is a new policy, but it has been like this for at least 5 years, as you can see on the pricing page, there was just no separate page», — SteamDB writes.
Developers will have to find other ways to monetize their games. We should expect to see more advance payments or paid DLC in, so to speak, «free» games.
Advertising has not been completely banned — not «disruptive» and appropriate in the context of the game will remain. For example, billboards or cosmetic elements of real brands.
There are examples of organic advertising in modern games: in Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, Monster Energy cans became part of the gameplay, and in the Xbox 360 exclusive Alan Wake, we saw various billboards with real advertising.
Perhaps Valve’s move will be an impetus for other platforms to reconsider their policies on advertising in games, but in the meantime, this has already become a «red» signal for the gaming industry.
Source: Steam
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