This is a bit of a win for consumers I think, as some developers were making a right mess of their Steam store pages as Valve have now announced some big changes.
You've probably seen it a good few times: you go to a Steam page, scroll down to get some info on the game, and you're presented with a list of random games from the publisher first that have nothing to do with the game you're wanting to look at. Some publishers really went overboard with this too, essentially publishing a bunch of games to turn them into adverts for other games and it got quite annoying.
In the announcement Valve said new rules will apply to the "About The Game" section, "Short Description" section, "Special Announcement" sections and the "Awards" section that include these changes:
- No links to other websites - This means that you cannot use your store page to link to any other website, including social media pages. There are specific link fields provided within your store page editor for linking to common social media platforms or your own website.
- No embedded imagery that mimics Steam store UI or buttons - You should not have images or animations that are meant to look like Steam UI such as images that look like wishlist buttons or game capsules or prices.
- No images, links, or widgets pointing to other games on Steam - This means that you cannot use your store page description to advertise other products on Steam. If you have related products, you can set up bundles, franchises, or developer homepages.
As part of this and the big standalone demo page update, this should also stop all the "free" Prologues that have become much more regular (that are basically demos under a different name) with developers sticking banners on their pages for all their prologues, as now the games and demos can be properly linked together.
On top of that, Valve has adjusted the Steam homepage, to stop all the demos appearing in the New & Trending tab pushing down actual new releases. Instead, there's now a dedicated tab for Trending Free that bundles them all there. A nice change for developers and consumers.
The new free/demo tab is great.
Edit: Just stumbled upon another game that uses fake Steam UI. It was advertised in the carousel on the top of the main page.
Last edited by Klaas on 14 August 2024 at 1:26 pm UTC
Schattenspiegel Aug 14
To be honest I do not care how the publishers clutter "their" product page. It is their loss if they annoy me when i try to buy their product. What I do care about, though, is that there still is no official option to remove the "news" section from "MY" library page... :(There's a news section? I think my brain has, over many years, gotten almost too good at not noticing all the ads and various other crap that clutters all the pages I look at on the internet.
To be honest I do not care how the publishers clutter "their" product page. It is their loss if they annoy me when i try to buy their product. What I do care about, though, is that there still is no official option to remove the "news" section from "MY" library page... :(There's a news section? I think my brain has, over many years, gotten almost too good at not noticing all the ads and various other crap that clutters all the pages I look at on the internet.
At the top of the library page in the Steam client.
(You asked...!)
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