Valve Seemingly Bans All Steam Games That Require Watching Advertisements To Play

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It appears that Valve has made it clearer on their platform Steam, what games are not allowed – those which require viewers to watch paid advertisements or operate using other ad-based revenue methods. Some reports suggest, however, that these rules might have been in place previously, and Valve is simply making them more explicit by creating a specific page on Steamworks for clarification.

The text clarifies that Steam doesn’t feature paid promotions and disallows revenue models relying on advertisements within the platform. Additionally, it specifies that developers are not permitted to offer incentives like in-game rewards to players in exchange for viewing or interacting with advertisements.

In the development of their games, creators should avoid using paid ads as a primary source of income. This means not forcing players to watch or interact with advertisements in order to play, nor restricting gameplay based on ad engagement. If your game’s business model involves ads on other platforms, you must eliminate those features before releasing the game on Steam.

Initially, it was reported by GamingOnLinux that Valve had altered its policy. However, SteamDB shared screenshots from BlueSky suggesting that this supposed change might have existed for around five years on a separate page. This new page appears to present the policy in a fresh manner. Notwithstanding these findings, it’s true that Valve has made a noticeable adjustment to its storefront: warnings are now displayed if a game in Early Access hasn’t been updated for over a year. These warnings are intended to keep users informed about potential delays or even abandonment of the projects, as stated on the game’s page.

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2025-02-10 20:08