In-game advertising: Valve bans forced advertising in Steam games 39 comments
Valve prohibits advertising practices that are mainly known from the mobile gaming area: forced reproduction of advertising. Games that force the player to reproduce advertising should be blocked. This much attention is not new, but Valve has only emphasized the Steam guidelines.
Progress only after promotion
The specifications that have now been separately registered in the Steam Terms of Use expressly prohibit all games that players review or interact with in order to continue playing the game. Developers are therefore prohibited from implementing advertising systems that make advertising reputation a prerequisite. In particular, the practice of smartphone and tablet games is known that the game is repeatedly interrupted by advertisements and which only continues after interacting and clicking on the advertisement. Many mobile gamers are therefore already taking advantage of the opportunity to remove gaming apps’ access to mobile data, which usually does not prevent gameplay, but disables ad interruptions.
What advertising is prohibited
Valve’s guidelines specifically mean a ban on forced ads. Games that require players to view or interact with advertisements are not approved on Steam. Games that use advertisements as mandatory means of progress or bonuses are not allowed. However, cross-promotions, product placements and potentially visible advertising elements remain permitted.
Instead, Valve encourages developers to use alternative monetization strategies such as disposable purchases, optional microtransactions, or additional downloadable content. Valve’s official pricing guideline states: “If your game depends on ad revenue on other platforms, you need to find a new monetization model to release it on Steam.”
But the directive is not new
However, this directive is not completely new, but it was already true for developers, Valve has now only recorded them in writing in the SteamWorks documentary. The importance of the guideline should be re-emphasized to developers to clarify that deviations are not tolerated. Previously, this information was part of a short FAQ under the title “prices”.
Transparency for Early Access Titles
In addition to the ad ban, Valve recently introduced a new feature for Early Access games. In the future, it will be visible when an Early Access title has recently been updated. This measure is intended to give players a better assessment of development progress and to ensure greater transparency in even unfinished games.
Topics: Gaming Steam Valve Source: Kotaku
A lifelong video game enthusiast, Julien reviews the latest releases and explores the technologies transforming the gaming world.
