Valve added a new page to its developer documentation, fixing a problem that seemingly wasn't there.
As reported by Gaming on Linux, Valve’s Steamwork developer documentation was expanded by a new advertising page. In this new addition the company explains the kinds of promotions and advertisements that are allowed on Steam as well as the explicit banning of in-game ads as a model of revenue on the entirety of its gaming platform.
While product placements are still allowed as long as “such portrayals are not disruptive and are appropriate within the context of the game”, titles with other kinds of in-game ads that prevent the players' progress in the game without having to watch some kind of commercial are banned from now on.
About this, Valve explains:
Developers should not use paid advertising as a business model in their game, such as requiring players to watch or otherwise engage with advertising in order to play.
As an example of games that are not affected by the advertising page, Valve describes a racing game with real life sponsors on the car. Since those collaborations won’t disturb the player’s experience in any way, Valve wouldn’t see any need to ban the game.
Paid advertising outside of Steam that leads to a store page is allowed as well as cross-promotion but “under no circumstances is it okay to charge developers to participate in a bundle or sell access to a store page or other page on Steam”.
In general, all of this doesn’t seem to be a reaction to any recent problem or development since there are not that many (meaning none) games that use any kind of ad that now is forbidden on Steam, but more of a preemptive move.
Do you mind in-game ads as a cost for a game to be free-to-play?
