Valve Bans Steam Games With Forced In-Game Ads

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Valve, in their updated guidelines for Steam, has made it clear that they don’t allow games distributed through their platform to have compulsory advertisements within the game that players are forced to view or interact with.

A recently added Steamworks documentation post sheds light on a specific Valve rule regarding ads within the Steam platform.

The webpage indicates that developers publishing games on Steam are advised against using paid advertising as the primary business strategy. Essentially, it means that forcing gamers to watch ads or engage with them in order to access the gameplay is not allowed.

According to the guidelines, if a game’s design incorporates ads from external platforms, these ad components should be eliminated prior to launching the game on Steam.

Valve banning games with forced ads on Steam isn’t new

For quite some time now, long-term Steam users on the gaming subreddit have observed that Valve has maintained this particular policy. It seems like they are simply making things clearer by establishing a specific page within the Steamworks Documentation, which is primarily utilized by their partners.

In that Reddit post, someone clarified that it had been a company policy for several years, but recently they’ve made it clearer and more straightforward.

It’s been mentioned that information about the prohibition of in-game ads was earlier found in the “Pricing” section, alongside a frequently asked question addressing whether Steam’s pricing policy permits games with paid advertisements.

On the freshly introduced specific page, you’ll find a wealth of details about the kinds of ads permitted and those prohibited on the Steam platform.

According to Steam’s policies, you may discover games in their marketplace that incorporate real-world brand placements such as advertising Red Bull energy drinks on an in-game billboard. This practice aligns with the guidelines explicitly set forth by Valve.

In my perspective, complications could surface if I were required to view an energy drink advertisement prior to competing on specific tracks to race.

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2025-02-11 02:48